The Three Chats
by epcot97
Summary: Close to year after his near defeat at the hands of Chat and Ladybug, Hawkmoth returns from self-imposed exile to reclaim his position in Paris. Repelling Hawkmoth, though, requires everything Chat and Ladybug can muster including unexpected help from a most unusual source.
1. Starting Over Again, Again

**One: Starting Over Again, Again**

_Author's Note:_

_This is the fifth in a series of adventures set in the universe first created by _Elegy for a Chat_, roughly taking place about a year after the events of _Night at the Museum; _while in this arc, Chat and Ladybug are well aware of the other's secret identities, I've also chosen to also incorporate what canon tidbits are applicable from all three seasons of _Miraculous_. Apologies in advance that there won't be a reveal. (Then again, maybe there will… but you'll have to read on to know for sure.) _

_Though not required reading, you might find it beneficial to review the first four sections of _Elegy _to get a sense of the character's journey to get to this point. I also recommend _What Came Before He Knew Her _and _Roommates: A What Came Before He Knew Her Story_, as they contain the extended backgrounds I developed for this series. _

_This story was written before the third season of _Miraculous_ had been completely released in the United States; though I've attempted to avoid spoilers at all costs, I am well aware of number of significant plot points that shifted our understanding of the _Miraculous_ universe. Any similarity of this tale to episode(s) that aired during the back half of the third season are purely coincidental and more due to my logical intuition based on what had aired to date._

* * *

_**Ladybug**_

She paced Chat's favorite rooftop. Master Fu had told her that this day would come; Mistress Time did not like to be cheated, and payment in full was now due. But the price… the price was too high in her estimation. And, frankly, cruel.

Her masked eyes flicked to the carrier she'd placed atop the parapet, holding the two innocuous looking coffee cups. She was well aware that Chat would be able to smell her father's roast from a few miles away, and would eagerly accept her offering without question.

That wasn't the cruel part. At least, not all of it. For Master Fu had provided her with insights on how this evening would go, insights that no normal person should be capable of providing. He had made it plain to her how important it was for her to get it right on the first try – and that there would be no second chance.

But could she go through with it? She was nearly certain not, but the drive to protect Paris was the only thing propelling her forward.

Ladybug caught the whisper of her partner on the wind and knew her time was up. Turning, she put on as best a smile as she could, plucked the two cups from the carrier, and waited for Chat to arrive.

Dropping down with the grace of professional dancer, Chat smiled the private smile he only had for Marinette as he trotted over to her, his tail happily trailing him. A piece of her heart fractured as she read the joy on his face; they had come so far, the two of them.

"Thank you, Milady," he said as he graciously accepted her offering. Together, they turned toward the view of Notre Dame, although she caught Chat's glance at the pair of pillows she'd placed to one side.

She took a sip of her coffee, and tried hard not to be obvious about watching Chat drink his. As she expected, he frowned a bit at the first sip and turned toward her slightly. "Did your dad change up his roasting?" he asked, before taking another tentative sip.

"No," she said. "Why?"

"Just a flav—" Chat started, before his masked eyes went wide with shock. The cup fell from his paw, and he tried to reach for the railing to steady himself. Ladybug tossed her own cup over the edge and quickly moved to her partner, and saw his masked eyes go even wider as she looped her yo-yo around his midsection, cinching it tightly to pin his arms before gently easing him onto the tile roof.

Carefully, she tipped him sideways just enough to remove his baton, then gently placed his wild blonde mane on the larger of the pillows, trying to ignore the wild expression on his face. "It's okay, kitty," she said, "this will only take a minute."

"Wha—wha-" Chat tried to speak, but the paralyzing potion she'd put into his coffee had made fine motor control nearly impossible. But his angry eyes, speaking of the most unfathomable betrayal, locked onto hers.

Ladybug knew she needed to say something, anything, to explain her actions; but in the end, it wouldn't matter. With a clinical detachment, she retrieved the vial containing the updated memory potion Master Fu had provided, then knelt beside her partner. Ladybug knew her eyes were red rimmed from the crying she'd already done; now, she was just emotionally drained and wanted to get through to the end.

Chat sensed what was coming when he saw the vial and tried to clamp his jaw shut; Ladybug had been told to anticipate that move and simply waited, knowing the paralyzing potion had yet to reach full efficacy. Slowly, Chat's frantic attempts to move from beneath her stilled, and he was left staring up at the night sky, incapable of anything short of breathing.

Now the tears came back, blurring Ladybug's vision as she carefully pried apart Chat's mouth and trickled the oddly colored liquid down his throat. The angle of the pillow ensured that gravity would provide just enough of an assist; Chat's own body would do the rest.

Vial empty, Ladybug leaned on her haunches, trying not to vomit. Chat remained motionless; she knew it would be another five or six minutes before he could move at all, so she sat back and waited. Subconsciously, she felt herself reach for the Le Chat Noir pendant he'd given her only to realize she'd taken it off before leaving the Bakery. That reminded her of Master Fu's final instruction.

Leaning back to Chat's insensate form, she started to pat down his non-Miraculous ring hand, looking for the ring she'd given him in return. Her fingers could feel it, but she couldn't actually see it, nor could she physically slide it off his finger. That would be a problem; if he'd somehow tied it into the magic of his suit, it would be hard to separate it from him later.

She sat back again, and then gently pushed a lock of his unruly hair away from his face. The memory potion had kicked in, and he'd fallen into the deep slumber it created while it went about the business of erasing targeted memories. In this case, it was slowly wiping out any thread of their personal relationship: their many date nights; his appearances on the Bakery rooftop meeting Marinette; his knowledge of her alter-ego's identity.

For Chat, he would only recall their professional time together. When he awoke, it would be as if none of their time as a couple had ever happened. And Master Fu had assured her that there was no way he would _ever_ be able to remember it, even if confronted with the evidence. It would be harder explaining it to the wider public, of course, but with time, it would simply be assumed that they had grown apart. In order to keep that storyline though, she'd already taken care of Rena and Carapace, the only other Miraculous holders who had known about both her identity and her relationship with Chat.

Chat's eyes fluttered and he groaned.

Knowing the worst of it was over, she gently tilted him up and unwound the yo-yo; quickly, she put the pillows away in Chat's secret hiding spot, grabbed the empty coffee carrier, and lassoed herself a chimney to vault away from the one person who likely needed her the most.

* * *

_**Chat Noir**_

My head hurt. Badly. As if someone had been pummeling me with a series of those cartoon anvils, one right after the other. Painfully, I tried to crack open an eye; my vision swam slightly, then steadied enough for me to realize two things.

First, I was still Chat Noir, as my green-gray night vision had kicked in, making the starry night seem to glow.

Second, I was apparently flat on my back. On a roof.

Carefully, I pushed myself up onto my elbows, and fought off a wave of nausea. For some reason, I'd expected to see Ladybug; as I slowly scanned the rooftop for any clue as to why I was there, she was the most obvious thing missing.

I flipped up into a crouch, immediately regretting the fast move as my vision swam again; I had to put both paws down to keep myself upright. This was my favorite rooftop with the view of Notre Dame; why was I here? For the life of me, I couldn't remember even getting here.

Reaching for my baton to check the time, my hand grasped air. I found myself twisting around to visually confirm that it was missing, causing my heartrate to tick up a notch. I never left home without it, as they say; _getting_ home without it would be a huge problem.

Standing carefully, I started a thorough search of the rooftop and found it in the far corner of the space, looking for all the world as though I'd rolled it across the tiles. Popping it open, I saw it was no worse for wear, though it was nearly midnight. That made my masked face frown: the last thing I remembered was vaulting out of my bedroom around 2115 to meet… someone?

The more I thought about it, the more my head ached. I clicked into phone mode and tried to dial Ladybug; it went directly to voicemail, and the GPS tracker confirmed she wasn't currently out and about. It wasn't all that unusual for me to be out on the prowl solo, but I had this nagging feeling I was supposed to meet someone. And as Chat, there were only two people that fit that description.

Only one of them could meet me atop this particular building.

_This is damn peculiar,_ I thought as I wandered to the wrought iron railing facing the cathedral. As I stood there, transfixed by the way the lights were playing off of the sides of the gothic structure, my feline sense of smell detected the scent of really good coffee. It tickled at my memory – it was a flavor I knew. Wasn't it?

Following my feline nose, I squatted and chased the scent to an empty cup that had rolled behind a section of parapet. A tiny puddle of black gold was around it, and I carefully sniffed at it. It was coffee, all right, and if I didn't miss my mark, it was the special blend from the Dupain-Cheng bakery. I often picked it up for the two of us when we went on patrol as part of my campaign to woo Ladybug, but the presence of one cup was really unusual.

I sniffed again and warning bells shot through my fuzzy brain, for the scent was off just a little. The cup design and overall aroma fit, but there was a hint of something vaguely metallic to the dregs that I couldn't place. I sat back on my haunches, looking at the debris thoughtfully.

_It's black, so this has to have been mine. But I never get a cup when I'm solo, unless it's a special occasion. And there's no indicator that LB was anywhere close. Why am I here? _

My eyes flicked back to the puddle.

_This is wrong. I don't know why, but it is._

Idly I found myself playing with the ring on my finger. Looking at my paws, though, I suddenly realized it wasn't my Miraculous, but rather one on my other hand; oddly, I could feel it, but not actually see it. It had to be beneath the costume… which was nearly impossible to explain, since I was quite certain as to how skin tight it was.

_Weird._

I stood up again, and felt better than I had earlier – or, at the very least, my world was no longer spinning around me out of control. There wasn't much left to do, so I extended my baton slightly and helicoptered toward the mansion and a few hours of sleep before school.


	2. Back & Forth

**Two: Back & Forth**

_Author's Note: Now the fun begins. Or, at least, some explanations. -ep_

* * *

_**Chat Noir (Current Day)**_

Having the run of the mansion meant I'd had the ability to explore every nook and cranny, something that had been expressly forbidden while it was under the dominion of Father. Generally I reserved my forays for after the minimal staff I retained had gone home for the day; I had no desire for one of them to happen upon Chat Noir prowling the expanse and then connecting the dots.

On more than a few occasions, Ladybug had joined me in my quest to understand how I had overlooked the fact I was growing up in the same house that Hawkmoth operated out of. On the one hand, being a teenager with superhero duties had tended to keep my focus outside the mansion; but on the other, I was apparently blind to the signs that my own relation was cooking up scheme after scheme to take me and my partner down, and Paris with it.

This particular evening, the two of us were still hunting for the secret entrance to Hawkmoth's lair. I was nearly certain it had to be somewhere in the atelier Father had used for his office, but so far I'd not been able to find it, even with my superior senses as Chat.

Close to one o'clock in the morning, we'd about called it quits and were lounging on the couches that ringed the outer sunken area of the office. Ladybug had thoughtfully brought along a thermos of Tom's famous brew, and I'd set it up on a side table for us. I still had to work hard to accept coffee from my girlfriend of more than two years; that incident a little more than a year ago after what I liked to refer to as my _Star Trek Time Travel Episode _felt like it was only yesterday.

That got me thinking. "Do you ever wonder how our past versions of us are making out?" I asked.

Ladybug sipped her over-sugared coffee and frowned. "How do you mean?"

"You know – version of me that you met - the one that swapped places briefly?" I sipped again. "I know that their timeline is essentially an alternate version of ours now, based on what happened, but I've always wondered how it turned out." I waggled my masked eyebrows. "Especially since past me finds out about you a whole year early."

Ladybug rolled her eyes. "Past me has to be rolling her eyes, too," she laughed. "But I'm sure it's fine. Master Fu seemed to think that over the long run, their timeline would smooth back out and wind up tracking with ours again." At that, she frowned slightly. "Although he also mentioned it might need a bit of a kick to right itself, though I have no idea what that might be."

"Well," I said as I stood to show Ladybug out. "Thanks for your help this evening."

She leaned in and kissed me, deeply, and then the two of exited the atelier. Feeling a bit frisky, I launched myself up the staircase, somersaulting the final distance to my room. Landing on all fours, I looked up and saw my partner lightly drop down in front of me, smiling. "Not bad," she said as I led her into my room and toward the open window.

The immature part of me hoped she would stay the night, but my breeding won out. I took her hand, kissed it, and bowed grandly. "See you at school, Milady," I said, placing another kiss upon her very soft lips.

"Don't be late, Kitty," she admonished. "Our team is up first for the debate in first period."

"I'll be there with my bell on," I smiled as I watched her jump to the windowsill, and then pull herself out into the inky blackness of the night.

* * *

_**Marinette (One Year in the Past)**_

She hadn't slept in days.

First it had been the anxiety over what she was going to have to do to Chat; then, it was the guilt for having gone through it. Around midnight, she'd thrown off the sheets of her bed and slid down the steps to her desk, and sat, head in hands, wondering why she had even agreed to the notion in the first place. Looking up, she could see the final vial sitting there, up against the mirror.

There was one last person that needed to go through the process, and she had found that she'd finally lost her nerve. Seeing Alya, Nino and, yes, even Adrien in school had brought waves of guilt to her soul. All three seemed to know something had happened to them, and wore fuzzy expressions when they looked at her or each other. It had made Marinette doubt Master Fu's insistence that the potion was irreversible.

Marinette stared at the potion and was sleep deprived enough to feel as though it was mocking her. Certainly her kwami was borderline; Tikki had barely spoken to her in the days since she'd set her plan in motion. Though she normally didn't impart advice to her holder, Tikki had in her own way let her know how she'd felt about her plan. And it wasn't favorable.

She pulled the vial toward her, and for a moment, she was nearly able to convince herself that she could make it all go away with a quick downing of its contents. Marinette held it up to the light, swirling the brilliant contents slowly. Closing her eyes, she uncorked the vial and slowly moved it toward her lips.

As on edge as Marinette was, the normally welcome soft rubbery _thump _from her rooftop patio startled her badly, and sent the vial tumbling out of her hands, emptying its contents across her desk. Swearing, she shot out of her chair and grabbed a spool of fabric close at hand to mop up the mess. She continued to swear to herself, and felt the wall of emotion she'd been holding back finally start to crack. Oblivious to the gentle tapping at her skylight, she threw her arms down on the desk and put her head atop it, and simply began sobbing.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been crying before she felt the gentle touch on her shoulders; when she finally came up for air, she discovered she was sitting on Chat's lap atop her chaise, where he was gently rocking her while holding her close, her head up against his black leather covered chest. It was exactly what she _didn't_need at that moment, for it was a jolting reminder of what she'd given up, and it sent her into another round of sobbing.

Somewhat later, she awoke with a start to the early rays of morning sunshine rolling through her bedroom windows. Marinette found herself snuggled up next to Chat, who had wrapped himself around her protectively. Looking up, she could see he was very much awake, though even with the mask, she could tell he'd not slept at all while she battled her demons.

"Princess?" he asked softly. "Are you feeling better?"

She pushed back from him slightly, desperate to get away from the intimacy and the memories it brought with it. Startled at her actions, Chat immediately released her and sat up. "I'm fine, Chat," she said, knowing she probably looked anything but. "Why are you here?" she added curtly as she redid a ponytail that had come loose.

If he was upset at her hostility, Chat hid it beneath his usual charm. "I was out and about last night," he said, "and when I passed by, I saw your light was on. Given the hour, I was concerned," he added, and she tried to ignore the compassion that blazed behind those emerald green eyes. "With reason, it appears."

"I'm fine," she repeated as she stood and started to make the motions of someone getting ready to be anywhere but in that space.

"All right," Chat said, and she could see his ears droop slightly. She was well aware of his empathetic tendencies, but also knew the boy beneath the mask was every bit a gentleman and wouldn't dream of pressing her further.

He slowly moved up the ladder to the skylight, looked as though he wanted to say something else but thought better of it before disappearing through it. Marinette started to breath again, having dodged a bullet. She turned and found a seriously annoyed TIkki just a few centimeters from her face.

"_Really_," Tikki fumed. "He spent the night with you, _comforted _you, and you _send him away!_"

"It wasn't anything-"

"Marinette, I watched him. You were out for more than _six hours_. He held you the entire time."

That made Marinette pause. _Six hours? That is totally Chat._

Had she made a mistake?

Marinette ignored her fuming kwami as she hurried about her business getting ready for school knowing she was nowhere near capable seeing Adrien in person. And now she needed to visit Master Fu again to obtain her dose of the potion.

It was going to be a long day.

* * *

_**Chat Noir (One Year in the Past)**_

Crouched behind the parapet of the building across from the Bakery, I watched for Marinette to leave for school through the slit of space between two balustrades and thought back to the odd last few hours. I hadn't lied to her a few minutes earlier – I'd been working late into the night on a paper for my humanities class and needed to stretch my legs. In my world, that meant transforming to Chat Noir and taking a quick spin over the rooftops of Paris.

Still troubled by whatever had _not_happened on my favorite rooftop a few nights earlier, I'd ultimately wound up revisiting the spot for the third night in a row looking for any conceivable clue. Like the two nights previous, however, nothing was forthcoming; this time, though, as I turned to head for home I saw the light come on in Marinette's bedroom. Her family's Bakery was just a few blocks away from my favorite rooftop, and owing to the late hour, it seemed reasonable to check in with my friend and see if she needed a feline ear lent to her.

What I had found was a crying, shaking hot mess. I heard the sobbing before rapping on the skylight and had taken the bold step of entering uninvited. Some part of me told me that was perfectly normal, but since I'd only visited Marinette as Chat on a handful of occasions, I still proceeded with caution.

I'd pulled her from her desk and carried her to the lounge, gently rocking her and waiting for the storm to pass. Just as it seemed like it was going to clear up, she looked up at me and started crying all over again. At length, I curled around her and let her cry herself to sleep, then proceeded to gently purr to her until the sun breaking through her windows finally woke her.

Her reaction to my continued presence, though, troubled me. She'd never acted that way toward Chat before, and now that I thought about it, she'd been standoffish to Adrien lately, too. Something was wrong, but I was also aware that I couldn't push her. So I settled for my patented Chat Stalking, trying to convince myself that I was simply ensuring my friend and classmate wasn't in any trouble.

She appeared about ten minutes later, and I shadowed her across the rooftops all the way to school. It was our last year at Dupont, and I was starting to get nostalgic for the building – not to mention the nice façade that made it easy for me skulk. Aside from Marinette briskly entering the courtyard and walking purposefully past her best friend Alya, nothing seemed amiss, so I curled myself around the side of the building and swung into the men's locker room, where I de-transformed in an empty shower.

I committed to shadowing her as much as I could, knowing it was going to be a long day.


	3. Chases

**Three: Chases **

_**Chat Noir (Current Day)**_

I was wrapping my first year at Le Lycée, and as I'd been fortunate enough to be able to enroll in the same school as most of my Le Collège Dupont friends, it hadn't been much of a transition other than having to find new unobtrusive entrances for those times when I was arriving – or leaving – as Chat Noir. The studies were every bit as rigorous, and we were already starting to toss around ideas for going to University. I'd been waffling a bit on that point, for I knew the demands of running House of Gabriel would require me to get some more formalized business training; it just wasn't a field I was all that enthusiastic about. Modelling could get me by for a while after graduation, but I was keenly aware that a newer, younger model would rise up and replace me before I turned twenty-five. I needed a solid backup plan and I just didn't know what that would be.

Marinette, on the other hand, was already making plans to enroll in the fashion design program and that alone was almost enough inducement to go into that field as well. We discussed it a few times in fact, and I'd even dropped hints that she could come work for me when she was ready.

In the meantime, I was carefully balancing running the company in my Father's absence, going to school, continuing my extracurriculars, and maintaining the peace in Paris as Chat Noir. "Running" was perhaps a euphemism, for the managers my Father had hired were essentially keeping the company going. They just needed me to sign the checks every now and then and attend the quarterly board meetings. Having already streamed _Arrow_ on Netflix, I was well aware of what nefarious activities could go on behind my back, though nothing appeared amiss – yet.

Without Hawkmoth around, we'd not had to handle anything more serious that an apartment building fire in more than a year. Ladybug and I made sure we were visible enough to remind Paris that we were still alive, but the clock was ticking. Master Fu had begun pressuring Ladybug to return our Miraculous to him so he could move on to the next hotspot in the world. Both of us felt strongly that Father would return to Paris, and so far, we'd managed to keep Master Fu on the same page. Deep down, though, if nothing happened by the time we returned to school in the fall, I expected we'd be just normal teens at that point and Master Fu but a distant memory.

Marinette shared a similar schedule to me, and had a study hall for the final period of the day. Partly we used the time to share a table in the library to work together on homework; more often than not, though, we used our flexibility to escape school and roam the city for a few hours as our superhero alter-egos.

That particular afternoon, we'd just finished an uneventful lap around the city and were snuggled into each other on a slanted tile roof looking toward the Grand Palais. The late afternoon sunshine was glinting off the acres of glass comprising the roof and dome. I pulled Ladybug a bit closer to me, and even went so far as to hook my tail around her waist. I might have even been purring slightly as I rested my wild mane against her head.

"I'm going to miss this," I said between the thrums of my purring, "I love these moments together. But I am starting to believe Master Fu is right – Hawkmoth is through with Paris. And Paris doesn't need us anymore."

Ladybug reached up and ran a hand through my hair. "We'll still have these moments, Kitty," she said affectionately. "Just not on rooftops."

I turned to her fully, and gazed deeply into those masked blue eyes. "I know," I smiled, "and you do realize I love you in or out of the mask."

"I do," she smiled.

"But there is a little something that Chat brings to the table I'll never be able to give you as Adrien," I said, voice tinged with regret.

She ran that hand down to my mask and cupped my face. "That's not true, and you know it."

I felt myself shrugging slightly. We'd discussed it before, obviously; Chat was as much a part of me as Adrien, so the belief there was a bifurcation was a fallacy of the highest order. I'd _been_ Chat for so long now, though, that losing him would be like ripping away some physical part of myself. That feeling was relatively new, brought on by my growing fear my time was coming to an end.

Pushing it to the side, I kissed Marinette deeply; she returned the favor and when we came up for air, I asked her what our plans were for dinner.

"'Our' plans?" she laughed. "I don't know."

"I am facing the real prospect of another lonely dinner by myself at the mansion, Milady. Please rescue me."

"All right," she said. "Maman was doing pot roast this evening, I'm sure she won't mind an extra setting."

That made my mouth water. "As Chat? Or Adrien?"

Ladybug looked thoughtful. While Adrien was a welcome but irregular visitor to the Bakery, Chat was there nearly every evening. And though we were a bona fide couple, we'd only been seen in public as Chat and Marinette from the get-go; having Marinette suddenly dump Chat and then pick up with Adrien required the finesse we'd attempted back during the Sweethearts Ball fiasco. So we'd kept up the pretense, knowing that someday we'd need to revisit the whole crazy situation.

But apparently not tonight, for Ladybug smiled and said simply, "Chat."

I smiled at her, for that was my hoped-for answer. I felt like I could handle Tom better with the mask on than not. We stood to head toward the bakery, but I paused when my baton expectedly buzzed. "One moment, Milady," I said as I popped it open.

The color drained from my face, and Ladybug had to have seen it happen; she quickly placed a supportive hand to my arm. "Chat, what is it? You look like you've seen a ghost."

I looked up at her, sure she could see the concern in my eyes. "Not a ghost," I said. "A moth."

* * *

_**Marinette (One Year in the Past)**_

She was well aware that Chat had been atop the roof opposite the Bakery when she'd finally emerged for school. While the potion may have removed his memories of his love for her, it apparently had done nothing to change his intrinsic feelings for her civilian identity, including his desire to keep her from harm. The despondent person he found last night had to have triggered some level of concern, and the way she'd brutally kicked him out into the cold night hadn't improved her cause. Marinette sighed and ignored the shadow of a cat that danced from rooftop to rooftop, paralleling her all the way to Dupont.

Adrien appeared in the classroom a few minutes after she'd slid into her seat. He was not as put together as normal, but only someone who knew what to look for could pick up on the tiny signs. Adrien's hair was fashionably finger-mussed, more to hide the fact that he'd not had time to style it properly, and his button-down shirt was rumpled, as if he'd worn it for more than a day.

Which he had, considering he'd visited her late last night and had apparently never actually returned home.

She tried to ignore his entrance by doodling on her tablet, but old habits die hard and her traitorous heart forced her eyes up to meet his. He smiled his normal smile, and paused before sitting. "Marinette? Are you all right – you look really tired this morning."

_Of course I do, dammit. You'd know, you were there,_ she thought angrily. Once more she found herself wishing she'd managed to take the potion herself; this odd state where she had become the last one standing to know everything was becoming tiresome.

"Marinette?"

She blinked. Adrien had prompted her again, and she'd tuned him out completely. Now that he was closer, she could see his emerald eyes were laced with genuine concern. He was leaning toward her, and had a hand out to place on her shoulder – the flash of a gemstone as he moved reminded her he was still wearing her ring. Yet another loose end.

Alya turned toward her, a minor look of shock on her face. "Mari," she breathed. "Did the two of you break up?"

"What?" she replied strongly, looking first to Alya and then back to a now confused and slightly flushed Adrien. Then it hit her. While the potion had been quite effective at removing Adrien's recollection of his connection with Ladybug/Marinette, the rest of the school knew that they'd been a couple for the past year. She looked back at Alya, who seemed to still know this, and now she could see Nino looking between Adrien and Marinette, a question forming on his face.

_I didn't think all the way through this,_ she thought morosely. _Then again, if I'd taken _my_ dose, it would be easier to shrug off. Or would it?_

Marinette chanced a look at the wider classroom, and her fear was confirmed: most of her fellow students were paying close attention to her interaction with the still-standing super model. The situation was threatening to get out of hand, so she impulsively reached up and pulled Adrien toward her, planting a chaste kiss on his lips.

Adrien snapped back standing as soon as she let him go, his face crimson and eyes wide with shock. "Princess," he said automatically, "what was that for?"

Marinette groaned; she'd flustered him enough that a tiny bit of Chat appeared. She realized he was fussing with the ring she'd given him as he considered what she'd just done to him. What was worse, she caught Alya's eyes narrowing as soon as she heard it. Frantically she tried to think how to stave off more questions until she could visit Master Fu and get everything straightened out. "For… being you," she said simply. "Still coming by to study this afternoon?" she asked, wondering if he'd still remember that he generally appeared on the Bakery rooftop as Chat to study with her most evenings.

Suddenly, she found herself smiling at the fond memory of his laughing at her concern that he stay transformed while doing their homework together. For at that point, they were well aware of each other's identities. With purrfect Chat logic, he'd informed her that he was simply being prepared in case an akuma attacked as they worked their way through Organic Chemistry.

_Dear Lord, now I'm punning for him. How much worse can this get?_

"I'm coming by?" Adrien asked, nonplussed. Clearly he didn't recall any of that, but Marinette kept her smile.

"Yes, you promised to help me in Calculus," she said, unsure if that was actually the truth.

"Uh, sure."

She could see it hadn't mollified Alya, who was wearing her patented _we'll-talk-later_ look. But class had started finally, and Marinette poured herself into the rest of the morning. She had an important appointment at lunch time, which couldn't come fast enough.

* * *

_**Chat Noir (One Year in the Past)**_

I waited on the rooftop of Dupont, masked green eyes scanning for Marinette's appearance and trying to decipher the meaning of the kiss she'd planted on me before first period. It had the taste of something we had done often, yet aside from working with her on some group projects and the occasional time I'd spent with her at the Bakery doing homework, we were nowhere close to the level of couple worthy of such a public display of affection.

Marinette was one of my closest friends, for sure, but it had never gone beyond that. I was well aware of how she felt about me; heck, most of the school knew. My heart was spoken for, though Ladybug didn't seem to realize it was hers to do with as she pleased quite yet.

I shook my massive blonde mane; my head seemed to ache horribly each time I even ventured into amorous thoughts of Ladybug. It naturally happened a lot, since I daydreamed of her nearly constantly. Asking Plagg if something was wrong with me or my connection to the Miraculous had been unhelpful; he'd been more shifty-eyed that normal and completely noncommittal. I had no desire to bring it up with Ladybug the next time I saw her, since it was about her, so I was toughing it out.

The pigtails of my friend appeared and headed down the main steps of Dupont. Marinette made a beeline for the Metro, which was fairly unusual. Normally she would walk to the Bakery for lunch; the Metro meant she would be trying to go further than that and still return by the end of lunch.

She glanced up at my position and I scooted back behind the façade, but not before I knew I'd been made. I skulked to the opposite edge and saw her turn back toward the Metro stop and hustle down the steps. If I didn't move quickly, I'd lose her on the platform.

Vaulting out of my hiding spot, I slingshot across the street and landed atop the decorative roof of the station. Scuttling across the iron-and-glass, I flipped over the edge and slid down the railing, speeding past concerned looking Parisians rightly wondering if I was on the trail of an akuma. I might as well have been, for Marinette had already pressed herself toward the leading edge of a wave of passengers waiting for the doors to the next train to open. Quickly, I vaulted up and into the dark recesses of the ceiling, hooking a claw around a light fixture.

She was scanning the crowd behind her, clearly looking for me; I was pretty obvious in my costume, so I tried to not to attract further attention by remaining motionless, desperately hoping the folks on the platform were more concerned with making this train than the quick appearance of one of the Heroes of Paris.

Satisfied she hadn't been followed, she moved into the train and took a seat; I quickly vaulted over to the top of the car, and pressed myself flat against the roof. As my claws sunk into the metal to keep me from being blown off the quickly accelerating train, I wondered exactly where Marinette might be off to.

Skulking around was more _my _domain.


	4. Cross Currents

**Four: Cross Currents **

_**Chat Noir (Current Day)**_

"You remember that tracking package I had Max write for me?" I called out to Ladybug. We were dancing across the skyline of Paris, headed back toward the mansion. While I was upset about missing out on Sabine's pot roast, the alert on my baton took precedence.

"I do," she replied as she lassoed another chimney to keep pace with me.

"I'm reasonably certain that Nathalie discovered part of it a year ago, which is why I lost them." I somersaulted over a chimney and then continued to run across the spine of a rooftop. "But my backup tracker just activated."

"Could it really be them? Or is it some sort of ruse?"

"I can't discount anything, but it will be easier to make that call once I review the data."

"Why would he come back?"

"_That_is the question of the hour, Milady."

My customary window to the bedroom was open, and I tumbled through with Ladybug close behind. I rolled out close to my computer and leapt into the chair, tapping the keyboard with a claw to wake up the station. Ladybug hovered at my elbow. It took a moment, but the globe popped up on my display, and a single dot appeared. I tapped the mouse a bit (yes, the irony of a cat using a mouse was not lost on me) to zoom and the map exploded to show a rapidly moving dot trailing a line behind it. The dot was just over portions of Northern Africa, preparatory to crossing the Mediterranean.

"Africa?" Ladybug asked. "That's odd."

I followed the trail backwards, and it started over Alexandria, Egypt. I tapped the starting point with a claw tip, careful not to puncture my flatscreen monitor. "That can't be good," I breathed. "If that is really Father, and not just a random patsy they've saddled with my tracker, he was searching for something." I turned my chair toward Ladybug. "I suspect a quick chat with Master Fu will confirm it's a hotbed of magical objects."

"And we both know what can happen with magical objects when they are in the hands of someone nefarious," she frowned.

"But why today?" I asked. "A year plus?" I turned back to the screen, and it was clear the destination was France. I knew they weren't in the corporate jet they'd stolen originally; I'd had it returned to Paris and thoroughly torn apart, looking for clues as to where they had planned on going. I'd managed to track them as far as New Delhi, India, before all trace was lost. Neither of us harbored any doubt that Hawkmoth would be bearing down on us, and soon.

But why today?

What to do about it was an easier question to answer. We'd had a year to consider our options, and while I wasn't comfortable saying we were ready for Hawkmoth's return, we wouldn't be as apprehensive, either. I looked back to Ladybug. "I'd feel better if we'd found his lair," I said regretfully.

"How long before he gets here?"

I turned back to the monitor and punched in a few commands. "Assuming they stop to refuel, and assuming this isn't some rogue operation to throw us off because they are _already_in Paris, about forty hours." I looked back. "Conservatively, this time tomorrow. That would give us a nice safety margin."

"An all nighter, then," she said as she pulled out her Bug Phone. "Let me tell my parents I'll be spending the night with Adrien…"

"You've finally made all my dreams come true, Milady," I smirked.

She punched me in the ribs.

* * *

_**Chat Noir (One Year in the Past)**_

Each time the subway car slowed for a stop, I slid as close to the edge as I dared, trying to avoid detection but needing to scan the exiting passengers for Marinette. I was vaguely aware the CCTV cameras had likely already caught me, but hoped to be off the line before the transit cops started asking questions I didn't want to answer. Three stops had come and gone before the telltale pigtails appeared; I was ready for her.

Deftly leaping toward the darkness of that station's vaulted ceiling, I simultaneously flipped one of my mini Chat Trackers at her moving form, catching her back just below a shoulder blade. The small dot would be nearly unnoticeable unless she'd felt it land, but judging from her determined gate toward the escalators, I was willing to bet it would be a bit before she realized I'd caught her. I'd used a version of the gizmo to track Kim a few months earlier with success.

I waited for her to disappear up into the light and then vaulted after her.

* * *

_**Marinette (One Year in the Past)**_

As she stepped onto the escalator, Marinette was reasonably certain Chat had followed her down into the Metro stop by Dupont, but wasn't one-hundred percent sure she'd evaded him when jumping on the subway car. Seeing how pressed for time she was, though, she couldn't afford more than the rudimentary anti-surveillance maneuvers, knowing full well that Chat could easily evade them.

Marinette hit street level at a trot, and quickly ducked into the first alleyway she could find. _Two can play at this game, Chat,_she thought to herself as she called for her transformation.

Once the red glow had faded, she popped open her yo-yo and launched the Chat Tracker.

* * *

_**Chat Noir (One Year in the Past)**_

_Merde._

I'd come up and out of the Metro stop just in time to see her duck into an alleyway; it was enough of a warning that I immediately took evasive action and hopped onto the center of the stairway and slid all the way back down into the Station, surfer style. Trying to ignore the ogling eyes, I vaulted back up and into the dark recesses of the ceiling, clinging upside down along an air duct.

_Did she see me?_I wondered. _Probably. But if she didn't, ducking into that alley is a veteran move to shake surveillance. She's been followed before, _I realized. _Or she's followed others._

My headache returned with a forceful throb that shocked me enough I nearly lost my grip. I had to blink hard to clear the blackness from my vision, all the while wondering what had triggered it. I wasn't prone to migraines, or at least hadn't been up to now. But the past few days had seen more and more of them – and not just when I was Chat. One had hit me pretty hard back at school, though it had cleared just as fast.

I popped open my baton and clicked it to tracking mode; oddly, the blip for Ladybug had appeared – and my tracker for Marinette was missing. I squinted against the now force ten intensity of my headache, trying desperately to read the coordinates of Ladybug. Waves of pain crashed between my eyes but not before I saw Ladybug was surprisingly in the very alleyway Marinette had ducked into.

_That's odd_, I managed to think, before my world blacked out.

* * *

_**Ladybug (One Year in the Past)**_

The green paw print was exactly where she expected it – down in the Metro station. Ladybug was a bit surprised that Chat hadn't followed her out to the street, then thought he might have done just that, and seen her disappear into the alleyway. Knowing Chat, he'd have instantly seen it as an evasion tactic and done one of his own.

She smirked slightly; Chat had no idea that she'd be able to track _him_.

Ladybug watched the dot for a bit, and then started to put away the yo-yo, but paused. Something was wrong; he'd not moved at all in more than two minutes. Chat was many things, but being patient was not one of them. Quickly she ran from the alleyway and against the rush of passengers emerging from the Metro; she came to an abrupt halt at the bottom of the escalators.

Chat was flat on his back in the middle of the platform, a small circle of Parisians around him. One was talking his pulse; another had their phone out and presumably had called for an ambulance. Her eyes widened: taking Chat to the hospital would be a problem. She ran over the crowd and pushed her way through it, dropping to his side.

His eyes were closed, and she could see he was breathing, but he was also most definitely out. Quickly scanning his form didn't turn up any visible injuries, but his baton was about a meter from his paw, and was popped open. She stood and quickly stepped over him to retrieve it; he'd been using his GPS tracker, and she could see her red ladybug logo was blinking. She snapped it shut and dropped to his side again, pressing a gloved finger to his neck to check his pulse. It felt normal.

"Anyone see anything?" she asked as she started to snake an arm beneath her partner.

"Yeah," a woman standing in the ring said. "He fell from that duct up there. Like a rock."

Ladybug looked up – it was ten or fifteen meters to the air conditioning ductwork in question. A pittance to Chat normally. She looked back down and tried to ignore the angelic expression his face took on when it was in repose. Marinette had caught him dozing on her balcony multiple times over the last year as Chat had an annoying tendency to not return to the mansion after their near-nightly brushes with Hawkmoth. It was an attempt to maximize his time with her, and hadn't been unwelcome. Despite herself, she reached down and brushed back a stray bang from his mask, trying hard to remind herself she had done what she'd done in an effort to protect him. To protect all of them.

Ladybug also knew that his very presence there in the Metro was a direct result of her actions. Chat was a curious one indeed, and she realized chasing him out of her room had been an engraved invitation to discover what was bothering her. Yet another indirect problem resulting from the potion.

Ignoring the crowd, Ladybug hefted her partner up and against her; using a combination of her leaping ability and lassoing items with the yo-yo, she managed to extricate him from the station and gained access to the street. Hooking to a light post, she swung up to a nearby rooftop and gently landed with her cargo. Carefully she laid him back down against the flat roof tiles, and made a more intimate examination.

She'd already determined that nothing visible had been broken back in the Metro station, but now she gently ran a hand along his head, looking for any injuries that might have been hidden by that wild mane of his. Ladybug breathed a bit easier when she didn't find anything, and moved on, probing the rest of his black-cladded form thoroughly but equally as gently.

Ladybug had nearly finished and was running her hands down the sides of his left thigh, trying to feel for any breaks or swelling indicative of a sprain, when she heard a strangled gasp and looked up to see two very shocked feline eyes going between her hands and her face.

"Milady," Chat said as his face flushed crimson. "Ah…"

She smiled, loving how cute he looked when he was flustered. And then frowned. The whole point of the potion exercise was to exorcise those feelings; she struggled to stay professional. "You took quite the tumble, Chat," she said clinically. "But it looks like you are uninjured."

Ladybug felt him tense as she patted down the rest of his left leg. "You're not normally at a loss for words."

"You don't normally have your hands all over me, either," he quickly replied, his flush deepening even further.

"How quickly they forget," Ladybug said without thinking as she pulled her hands away from him and turned toward him fully, a knowing smirk on her face. It was quickly replaced by a frown.

Chat's masked eyes had gone very wide. "You've never—"

"What brings you to this part of the city?" she asked, realizing her slip of the tongue could create more issues. "And why the Metro?"

He was still wearing a shocked expression. Sliding out from beneath her, he backflipped to a convenient pony wall and perched. "I could ask you the same," he said evasively.

Focusing her best Ladybug glare on him, she said, simply, "Chat."

Chat looked at her for a long moment, and she could see him internally debating how much to tell her. Normally he wouldn't _stop_talking, so the quietude of her partner started to unnerve Ladybug. She was on the cusp of prompting him again when he finally spoke. "I'm worried about a friend."

Knowing she was starting to run short on her lunch hour, Ladybug began to feel a bit frustrated and tried to move along his explanation. "So you followed her onto the Metro?"

Chat raised a masked eyebrow, and his look became guarded. "What makes you think it was a 'her?'" he asked carefully.

"You're Chat Noir," she said shortly. "Of course it was a 'her.'"

He snapped his head back as if he'd been slapped. She knew his flirtatious act was just that – an act, one that he'd used as a conduit for expressing his feelings first for Ladybug, then later, Marinette. As Adrien, he'd been unable to say what he could say to her as Chat. The Ladyblog, of course, had caught all of his antics and created a reputation he didn't deserve – and one that he was especially sensitive about.

Ladybug had managed to hit him in his softest spot. "Chat—"

"Thanks for the rescue," he said. "I purromise to be more circumspect in the future."

She could see his emotions were running high in the jerky move he made to retrieve his baton; he then vaulted away from her with none of the dancer's grace she'd come to expect. Running to the edge of the roof, Ladybug started to call out to her partner but found herself watching him tumble and vault away from her, his tail twisting behind him – more in agony, she presumed, than the wind buffeting it.

Ladybug hadn't intended to hurt him. But she could see she had.

Sighing, she waited until he was out of sight before diving over the edge and ziplining to the alley, detransforming the moment her toes hit the pavement. Master Fu was just a few blocks away, and if she hurried, she might just make it back before classes resumed for the afternoon. Or before Chat Noir had caught up with her again. For she knew it was just the sort of action he would take.


	5. Aches & Pains

**Five: Aches and Pains **

_**Chat Noir (One Year in the Past)**_

The ache in my head had receded a bit, but the ache in my heart felt like an open wound.

I sat with my back against an antenna tree atop a random apartment complex a block or so away from the Metro stop. Being Chat, I'd taken a big loop around to drop out of sight of Ladybug, realizing of course that it would be obvious on her Chat Tracker what I was doing. My baton was snapped open to the Bug Tracker function, but I wasn't really watching it.

I vaguely remembered falling from the ceiling, but the memory of waking up with Ladybug literally pawing me was bold and demanding my attention. In another context, I would have welcomed such purrsonal attention; what troubled me was her implication that past such incursions had taken place.

There was that ache again! If I didn't know better, it certainly felt like any time I had romantic musings of my partner, it would crop up. And since I thought about her constantly, it was becoming a problem. I shook my mane again in a fruitless attempt to get the throbbing to subside.

My feline eyes caught a change on the Bug Tracker, and I focused on it. The logo for Ladybug had disappeared; almost immediately, the generic logo for the device I'd planted on Marinette reappeared. I squinted at the coordinates just to confirm what I was seeing: the last location for Ladybug and the current location for Marinette were exactly the same.

_That's not possible. It's not even a reasonable coincidence._

The throbbing in my head went to eight on the scale, and I tried to ignore it. Stashing my baton, I vaulted from my spot and soared over to the next building, then clawed my way down the side to an alleyway. Carefully, I skulked to the edge fronting the street and popped open the baton. The tracker indicated Marinette was in the building across the street, up a few floors. The neighborhood was nondescript by any standard, so I was hard pressed to understand why she'd cross half of Paris on our lunch hour to get here.

I was missing a piece of the puzzle. I needed more information and there was only one way to get it.

Vaulting the street, I hit the side of the building in question and then clawed my way up to a level just below the correct floor. Checking the baton, I adjusted my path and moved laterally until the flashing indicator was essentially directly in front of me. Looking up, I could see a small window next to a larger double-door balcony. Both had their curtains drawn, and were closed.

Smiling slightly, I carefully pulled myself up to the small window, and then pressed my feline ear against it.

* * *

_**Chat Noir (Current Day)**_

Call it feline intuition, but I decided it would be best for us to start our search in the basement. A year earlier, I'd discovered an abandoned laundry chute behind a wall of my bedroom; while it connected to the outside world and had allowed me to escape the mansion without detection, I'd also stumbled upon the pattern vault for House of Gabriel – and the servers Hawkmoth had been using.

We were in that room again. I'd not activated the baton's flashlight, opting for my night vision in the murky darkness, though Ladybug was using her yo-yo's same function. Ignoring the rows and rows of clothing prototypes, we'd started at opposite corners of the space and worked toward each other, looking for any sign of a secret entrance to anywhere. By the time we'd met back at our starting point, I was more discouraged than before.

"Anything?" I implored my partner. She just shook her head.

I dropped down into my patient cat stance, trying not to look as forlorn as I was feeling. "I feel like there is _something_here," I said dejectedly. "I remember hearing mechanical noises just above me and moving away." I looked up. "We should be nearly directly below the atelier, too."

Ladybug dropped down beside me. "It's here. We'll find it."

I tried to stifle a yawn and couldn't. Twisting my baton, I saw it was 0043. "I suppose I could just Cataclysm a few walls to see what's behind them," I joked.

Ladybug wasn't looking at me any longer, but above me. "What is that?" she asked, pointing her flashlight to the ceiling.

I turned. "Turn off your light," I said as I followed her hand. "My night vision might see more detail."

The space went dark and I fully swapped to night vision. Looking where she'd indicated, I saw a slight channel in the ceiling; she'd seen a small flashing light up against it. "Huh," I said, standing and turning around my baton. "One second…"

Riding the baton upward, I stopped within a feline ear of the ceiling. There, nestled into the channel, was a network switch. I traced the cables in one direction and saw them connect to the servers below; additional cables came out from the other side and twisted up and into a cable trunk that disappeared into the higher stories of the building. The trunk was just a little more than shoulder width and about as long. I'd never had reason to look up, and in fairness, this spot was fairly well shielded by what looked to be plumbing for the powder room on the first floor.

Riding back down, I landed and turned to her. "Nice catch. The channel goes quite a way up; it's just wide enough for us to climb through one at a time. I can go up the baton first and then lower it back to you."

"Or I can hook the yo-yo you," she said, quickly looping it around my waist.

"Okay," I smiled. "That will work."

I triggered the baton again, angling it to be centered in the channel, and up we went. My sense of distance felt like we'd topped out somewhere around the attic of the mansion when my feline ears once again brushed the ceiling. The trunk became a T at that point, and one side had a small grill for access.

"I'll go left," I said, carefully squeezing myself into the side channel. "You take right," I finished, as I helped her swing up to the other side and detached the yo-yo.

The space was tight, nothing like the spacious Jeffries Tubes the _Enterprise_sported. I was on my stomach, arms out front, crawling on elbows and knees to the grill I'd seen from the vertical shaft. Setting aside my Father's ability to have any of this built without drawing attention, I marveled at what appeared to be a fully fiber optic network. Only the best for Hawkmoth.

I used the baton to pry open the grill from the back, and it popped forward and dropped with a clatter that echoed, telling me the space beyond was large. Wriggling out myself, I dropped down about a meter to the floor, and found myself in a circular shaped room finished with riveted iron panels. At one side was a massive iris of similar but smaller panels; it appeared to be covering a window.

The space was completely empty, but I suspected that only meant it was good at hiding its secrets.

Halfway across, another grill popped out and Ladybug appeared.

"We found it, Milady," I said. "Now we just need it to reveal what it knows."

* * *

_**Marinette (One Year in the past)**_

Master Fu frowned at her. "It will take me some time to make more of the potion," he said at length after stroking his beard, "but I am out of several of the key ingredients."

"How long?" Marinette demanded. Interacting with Chat was becoming intolerable for her.

"Two or three weeks."

"I can't wait that long," she said. "I'm already making mistakes! He's going to know something is wrong. That cat has an insatiable curiosity, especially when confronted with a mystery."

Master Fu looked at her. "The version of the potion you used was different than what future me gave future you," he said. "There is no way for Chat Noir to regain his memories, no matter what you think you might be doing."

"You don't understand," Marinette said, tears starting again. "I can see him trying to work it out. He _will _break the spell, it's just a matter of time." She paused to wipe away a tear. "You yourself told me that future me was able to break out from the effects. It stands to reason Chat can, too."

"He won't." Fu turned and made some notes on is tablet. "I'll summon you…" he started before trailing off, his gaze caught on the notification that popped up on his screen. Tapping it, he absorbed the scrolling text, then turned toward Marinette. "Tell me about the Metro."

"The what?" Marinette said, not following his shift in direction.

Master Fu held the tablet up. A photo of Chat Noir, passed out on the Metro station's floor was on it; he scrolled, and it went to another photo of her bending over Chat.

"Ah," she said, blushing. "Adrien… well, Chat, I suppose, tried to follow me from school. I figured it out before he trailed me here, but when I went to confront him, he was as you see him there."

"What happened to him?"

"He didn't remember," she said, replaying her short conversation with Chat and flushing slightly at her insult to him.

"Why was he there?"

"He wouldn't tell me, exactly, but he was following Marinette." She paused. "He didn't expect to see me turn up as Ladybug, so that's something, I suppose."

Master Fu closed his eyes, and she thought she could see a frown. "Is there a chance," he said very slowly, "that he might have caught you transforming?"

"Absolutely not," she said.

Fu opened his eyes. "Turn around, my child."

"What? Why?"

"If what I suspect is true, you might be right about Chat Noir."

She stood, still not understanding, and turned. Master Fu started to chuckle, and she felt him pluck something off of her shirt. Turning back, he held out a tiny microdot to her.

"What-?" she started, then squinted at the small circle. A tiny green paw print was etched on the front. Her head snapped up. "I forgot he had these," she breathed. "What does it mean?"

"It means that Chat Noir is in grave danger," Master Fu said.

* * *

_**Chat Noir (Eight Years in the Future)**_

"I'll be a bit late tonight, Chat," Marinette told me as she shrugged on her briefcase.

I smiled and kissed her before using a claw to play slightly with the ribbon she'd used to tie up her ponytail. We'd just started our second year sharing an apartment, and I remained amazed that I'd managed to keep my true identity a secret from my girlfriend. "How late? Late as in I do crock-pot beef stew? Or late-late, as in I make you a sandwich you'll grab from the fridge at midnight?"

She laughed at me, hand on the door. "Late-late."

"Damn," I said, kissing her one more time. "I'll put the roast back into the freezer."

Marinette rang a finger along my mask, then used it to tap my bell. "Save it for the weekend," she smiled. "Something for me to look forward to."

"Of course, Purrincess," I smiled, planting a final kiss on her head.

And with that, she was out the door and off to her life as a junior fashion designer.

I backflipped to the kitchen counter, more because I could than any other reason, and cleared away the dishes from breakfast, then took my coffee over to the main balcony of our apartment. We had an amazing view of the Eiffel Tower, and I slid the door open to stand in the morning sunshine for a bit. I was free that day, with no modeling engagements. Originally we'd planned on a long weekend getaway to Nice, but Marinette was tied up on a big new clothing line and had to bail at the last minute. I could use the break, anyway; the last few weeks had been pretty hectic for my alter-ego.

Pulling myself up, I balanced sideways on the rail with my tail hanging off to one side, and closed my eyes. I was going to sit there and soak in every photon for the next few hours, giving myself over to my baser cat instincts.

Oddly, Hawkmoth had been pretty quiet. I'd not seen Ladybug in more than ten days, but I had texted her just to make sure she'd remember who I was (she'd told me I was impossible to forget). I'd also let her know that my weekend plans had changed and I'd now be in Paris, and she'd told me how sad she was I'd not be able to have the romantic getaway I'd been regaling her about.

I dozed off, thinking happy thoughts, only to be startled awake by some disturbance in the apartment. Landing in my pounce crouch, baton in hand, I took a brief second to apologize to the smashed coffee mug laying in pieces on the balcony before creeping back into the apartment.

Nothing seemed amiss; still, one of those indefinable senses I had as Chat kept me on full alert.

I crept further into the apartment, and began to feel an electric tingle along my skin. That made me pause, for my costume, while skintight, generally didn't transmit that sort of sensory impulse. Moving closer to the kitchen, the tingle got stronger, bursting into a nearly palpable frisson.

Pausing, I scanned the apartment again. I nearly missed it on my third pass, but there was a blue glow behind my sugar canister on the counter that finally caught my attention. Carefully standing, I moved slowly over toward the counter, and slowly slid the canister away.

Sitting on the counter was a small pocket watch, glowing in blue. I recognized it immediately – it was the Rabbit Miraculous, which I knew hadn't been there earlier. Stepping back a bit, I popped the baton open and speed dialed one of our newer team members. Alix picked up.

"Chat?" she said. "Do you need me?"

"No," I said carefully. "Listen, this is going to sound odd, but do you have your… uh… watch with you?"

"Yeah," she said, and moved offscreen for a moment, returning to dangle the watch from its chain. The same one that was currently sitting on my counter. "Why? What's up?"

I looked at her thoughtfully. We'd had a few time-related akuma situations over the years, and none of them had been very easy. The swirling eddies that changes in the timeline could create were always a concern of ours, and Ladybug had been pretty explicit about how we handled them. Choosing my words carefully, I continued. "I'm not sure. Can you do me a favor? Try calling me in about six hours. If you can't reach me, tell Ladybug I'm… late, very late, for an important date."

"Chat, is this some kind of joke?"

"No," I assured her. "Please, tell her _exactly _that, will you?"

"Okay," she said, looking at me as though I'd gone nutty on her.

Hanging up, I put the baton back and then carefully reached over and plucked the Miraculous off the countertop. There was a massive flash of blue light, and I found myself clinging to the side of a building, staring at the back of… me.

Well, a shorter and younger version of me. Who appeared to have a feline ear pressed against a window, eavesdropping. I pulled back slightly; unless I missed my mark, it was the apartment complex Master Fu had been living in during my early days as Chat Noir. I turned back to the smaller version of me and judged if I had travelled into the past, that would be about the right age for me to have been during that period.

Except, I had absolutely no recollection of ever having been visited by a future version of me. This didn't bode well; more importantly, perhaps, why was younger me engaged in a clandestine operation?

"Hey, Chat," I said. "Got time for a visit?"

He turned toward me, shock on his face; I watched in slow-motion horror as his masked eyes rolled up and he fell away from the window.


	6. Overwhelmed & Overloaded

**Six: Overwhelmed and Overloaded **

_**Chat Noir (One Year in the Past)**_

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Whoever this Master Fu Marinette was talking to, he seemed to know entirely too much about Miraculous jewels, potions, and magic in general. But that wasn't the worst of it. If I understood what he'd been saying to her, _she_was Ladybug.

Marinette. Was. Ladybug.

And she knew who Chat Noir was.

The underlying context of their conversation indicated I had known all of this; I wracked my feline brain and came up with a massive headache which in itself seemed to be some sort of confirmation. With this Master Fu's help, she'd somehow managed to erase those memories from me.

I kept returning to one point. Marinette was Ladybug.

_I had known that._

My head was seriously pounding, hard enough that blackness was hovering around the edges of my vision. But I continued to press my ear to the window, trying to glean every last piece of information I could. It was hard to follow all of it, especially the bit that some version of this had already happened to me, or maybe Ladybug; that leaned into some sort of weird time-travel event that either had happened already, or would happen soon.

Much like Captain Janeway, time travel made my feline head hurt.

I was on the verge of blacking out from the pain in my head when I heard Master Fu pulling my tracker from Marinette's blouse, and realized it was probably time to make my getaway. That was when I heard myself say, "Hey Chat. Got time for a visit?"

Except, I hadn't said anything.

I turned, and some version of me was hanging right next to me. He was wearing the same Chat Noir costume, but had filled it out a bit with muscles I could only dream of; his face seemed older, but not more than a few years. But everything else was the same, right down to the fly-away blond mane and rather cocky slant of the eyes now turned toward me.

It was sensory overload, and the world went dark.

The next sensation I felt was the whooshing of air through my blond mane; I cracked open a masked eye and found myself soaring above the streets of Paris; it took another moment to register that I was actually being _carried_over someone's shoulder, and not participating in this event in any way.

My somewhat ignominious position had me staring the backside of older me's costume, and I noted with clinical detachment he appeared to still wear the belt tail as I currently did. It fluttered behind us as we moved through the sky, but I recognized the same purposeful navigational movements that I used to aid in my own flight over the rooftops. They were more subtle, to be sure, bespeaking the additional time older me had apparently had to fine tune the system.

"Chat?" I asked, unsure if he could hear me upside down as I was.

"In the fur."

Sure sounded like me. "Are you me? From the future?" I added, quickly connecting him to what I'd been listening to.

"Purrhaps," he replied. "Time is a bit odd, actually. I'm likely from one _possible_future. Not exactly the one you will experience, but close."

"Do I marry Ladybug in your future?" I asked impulsively. Might as well know.

That caught him off guard. "Uh, no," he said. "But if it helps, I'm in a long-term relationship."

"With?" I prodded.

I felt him tense a bit. "I'm not sure if I should say anything more," he said as he adjusted and leapt over an alleyway. "I admit I normally lean on Ladybug regarding what is permissible when we're caught up in a time travel situation."

Despite the strangeness of everything, I felt a smile appear on my face. "Sounds a lot like Ladybug," I agreed. "Although we've not had any time travel episodes yet."

He tensed further. "Wait, what?" he said as he redirected suddenly and landed at a trot on a slanted rooftop. Gently, he slid me off and I rolled into a crouch facing him. "Repeat what you just said."

"Which part? Ladybug being Ladybug? Or—"

"The 'no time travel' part."

"It's not happened – ow!" I started, and then the massive throbbing hit once more. I curled into a fetal position, hands wrapped around my mane, and knew I was mewling horribly. But the pain was so intense, I couldn't ignore it.

I felt his hand on my shoulder. "Chat? Chat, what is it?"

"Pain," was all I could get out, my masked eyes squeezed shut against the onslaught. I could feel tears streaming down my mask.

"Deep breaths," I heard from somewhere above me. "In. Out. Picture yourself on the Riviera, watching the tide roll in."

"Not… a… photoshoot?" I managed to gasp. My humor appeared to wish to assert itself.

"Hell no," older me said. "Picture just you and Marinette, walking hand in hand…"

That was an odd thing for him to say. I'd never dreamed of having Marinette walk along the beach with me; Ladybug, sure, but Marinette was just a really good friend. And yet, unbidden, and image of her did pop into my brain, smiling as we strolled along the sand into the sunset...

A bolt of pain sizzled across my brain and I blacked out again.

This time, I appeared to have been unconscious far longer than before, for when I managed to finally crack open my masked eyes, the sun was low on the horizon and lights had started to glitter on the buildings. I propped myself up on an arm and saw older me leaning against a chimney.

"Hey," I said. "Thanks for sticking around."

"My pawleasure," he said. Then, without preamble: "Why were you at Master Fu's?"

I felt myself flush. "Marinette has been acting strangely," I began. "Ever since Sweethearts Ball, actually. I found her sobbing in her room last night, and tried to console her; she got rather angry and kicked me out."

I looked at him. "I decided to watch her closely today, since I couldn't determine what had happened to put in her such a state. She was completely off at school, faking to the class that we – Adrien and her, rather – were dating, and then told us she was going to lunch at the Bakery. She took the Metro to Fu's instead." I shrugged. "I put a tracker on her and followed."

He looked at me oddly. "You said earlier you haven't experienced any time travel," he said.

"That's right," I replied.

Chat nodded thoughtfully. "What else did you hear?"

"That Ladybug is Marinette," I said, "and that I apparently knew that. And she knew—" I stopped. Both the warning throb in my forehead and the very odd look on older me's face had me frowning. "What?"

"Ladybug… is Marinette?" he said slowly.

"Yes," I said. "You must already know that, right?"

He slid down the wall into a seated position, looking rather stunned. "No," he said. "I don't. At least, not yet."

"When is 'yet' for you?"

He blinked. "Uh, a year out from graduation from University. I'd guess nine or so years from now."

Something clicked with me. "You're dating Marinette, aren't you?"

"Yeah," he said. "Living with her, actually."

"As Adrien?" I asked, still trying to fathom such a thing.

"No," he said slowly. "As Chat."

"How, exactly, is that working?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"Well," he said with my traditional Chat smile. "What else did you hear?"

"I appear to be suffering from the effects of a potion I've been given." I frowned. "Some sort of targeted memory spell."

Chat frowned. "She used a memory spell on you."

Feeling the warning throb, I answered carefully. "I think so, yes," I nodded. "I obviously don't remember, but that was the crux of the conversation I was listening in to when you arrived." I rubbed my forehead with a paw. "I'm starting to think the pain I'm experiencing is based in part on trying to remember what's not there anymore."

"Interesting," he nodded again. "I was about to say the same thing."

I smiled fractionally. "Great minds think alike."

He laughed. "Great _mind,_I would think," he corrected. "So, this is all wrong," he said.

"What's wrong?"

"You've travelled into the future once already, Chat," he said. "It happened right after you took Marinette to Sweethearts Ball." He paused. "As Chat."

I felt my eyes bug out. "I was supposed to take… Marinette? To the Ball?"

"Yes," he nodded. "At least, as I remember it. In my timeline, I still don't know she's Ladybug; I genuinely took her as Chat because Marinette had been dating me, as Chat, for about a year to that point." He looked away. "I made a promise to Ladybug not to reveal myself to anyone until she said it was safe to do so. I can't believe she's been hiding herself in plain sight like that."

I could see his ears wilting slightly and felt terrible for him. Of all the lousy ways to learn Ladybug's identity, his sudden discovery there on the rooftop with me ranked just below my ear-pressed-to-the-window version.

"Anyway, right after the Ball, Hawkmoth used an old time spell to try and get the upper hand on us. It had the effect of pushing you into the future, where you swapped places with future you."

"I did?"

"Yes." He looked back at me. "After it was over, Ladybug and I met for coffee on my rooftop—"

"Facing Notre Dame?" I said, nodding. "I woke up there a few days ago with no memory of going, and an empty coffee cup."

"Yeah." He paused. "_My_Ladybug and I didn't need to go through that, since we don't know each other's identities." He paused, longer this time. "At least, until just now."

I nodded. "In my case, we knew everything. Master Fu must have convinced her it was the prudent move."

"I doubt she went easily," he said. He stared into the sky. "This is what I was alluding to before. We represent two of the possible outcomes of that decision."

"What do you mean?"

"In my timeline, Ladybug doesn't know about the potion." He looked at me, meaningfully. "In yours, she managed to dose you, but somehow hasn't taken it herself."

"My God," I said. "That leaves two more possibilities."

"Exactly," he nodded. "In one, Chat never gets the dose, but Ladybug does; in the other, both of us take it."

I looked at him. "Why, exactly, are you here? Right now?"

"I suspect these fractured timelines are trying to repair themselves. Back to the actual future ahead."

"But which one is the _right_timeline?" I asked, head hurting more now from trying to wrap my brain around the temporal mechanics.

"They are all _right_," he said. "Only one, though, is the primary timeline. And ultimately all of them _should_converge." He pushed himself up into a standing position. "If I had to guess, I would say our two timelines are wrong; we were created as outgrowths of a mistake that had to have been made when Chat was sent back to the past. And we need to go to a third to correct it."

Chat pulled out a pocket watch from his costume pocket. "We need to locate _that_Chat. He is the key."

I frowned. "Did I – well, one of us, rather – create the problem?"

He smiled. "I suspect we fixed it; but not completely."

I eyed the watch he was holding. "What is that, exactly?"

"It's the Rabbit Miraculous," he said. "You've not seen it yet," he added with a certainty I was sorely missing at the moment.

"No," I said.

"It appeared on my kitchen counter this morning." He popped open the cover. "After first ensuring the current holder hadn't lost it, I picked it up and found myself here." His masked eyes turned to me. "That fourth timeline I mentioned?"

I nodded.

"I think I sent this to me. I know – or will know – that this mess has occurred, and only the three of us can fix it.

"I don't follow you. Only three of us? Why not include the fourth?"

Chat frowned. "I may be wrong, but _that_Chat must know his future is not the 'correct' one. It may well be the case that by sending this to me, he's already erased whatever time eddy created his reality."

I felt the color drain from my face. "He's… dead?"

Chat blanched. "No. Not exactly. He never existed. Or won't exist. Take your pick."

"Why do I suddenly feel very, very scared?" I asked, wide masked eyes staring at the Miraculous in his paws.

"A reasonable emotion," he said. "Ready?"

"Where are we going?" I asked, choking back bile.

"To visit Chat," he smiled.

"Suppose _he_doesn't exist either?" I asked, masked eyes wide. "What happens to us?"

"Then it'll be our big chance to get away from it all," he laughed as he closed the lid.

The world exploded in blue-white energy.


	7. Chat-ching Up

**Seven: Chat-ching Up**

_**Chat Noir (Current Day)**_

Hawkmoth's secret lair was spare, to say the least. It took less than ten minutes to cover the space, and we found absolutely nothing. I had to assume there were secrets hiding behind the iron walls, but there were no obvious mechanisms to reveal what lay beyond. Despite knowing there was a high-speed network wired to the space, neither one of us could find any trace of an interface. That spoke to some sort of portable tablet that he had to have used, reminding me of the device Nathalie often had in her hands.

Thoroughly dejected, I was sitting in my cat-crouch at the exact center of the room, staring up at the closed iris. If I couldn't even figure out how to open the window, how would I discover any other secrets in that space?

Ladybug was still working the perimeter, muttering to herself as she moved. I knew she was feeling the same tension I was; neither of us were excited at the prospect of facing Father. "Not even a data jack," I heard her murmur. "Must be wireless."

"That's what I think, too," I agreed. I had my baton out and opened to data mode. "It's hidden, since it doesn't come up as a network I can connect to."

"I can't believe how thoroughly he thought through this," Ladybug said, continuing the circle. "Who knew super villains were diligent about security."

"And yet, he left the servers wide open in the basement," I said, shaking my head. "It was almost too easy for me to load Max's software-"

I paused. _Max's software._

"I am a fool," I said, loudly, as I clicked back a menu or two on the baton and loaded up the remote interface for the hacking tool Max had created for me more than a year ago. I'd used it to gain control of the servers Father had running the security system at the mansion, and I had augmented it to locate any data on Chat Noir or Ladybug. At the time it was more to see what Father had collected on us – before I knew he was Hawkmoth.

But it also had some interesting back door tools that I could use to possibly jump from the mansion system to the Hawkmoth network. I methodically starting running a series of terminal commands on my tiny screen, and my sudden silence attracted the audience of Ladybug.

"You look like you are on to something," she said as she sidled up next to me.

"Yeah," I said, watching the data scroll by on the screen. "Gotcha!" I said triumphantly.

On cue, the iris covering the window spiraled open; there was little moonlight, but the sense of space had appeared at the very least. "I've located the main subsystems running this part of the mansion," I explained over my shoulder. "I think these here—" I indicated a set of cryptic commands on the screen with a claw, "might control this space specifically."

I looked back at her. "I'm not certain if there are any failsafes," I warned her. "Better be ready."

She nodded and readied her yo-yo.

I tried a likely looking command and was rewarded with several panels sliding open across from us. I sprung out of my crouch and landed next to the first. It appeared to be a storage compartment geared toward holding a book, which appeared to be missing. "Grimoire?" I asked Ladybug.

"If so, he took it with him."

The next panel had a series of cubbyholes, two of which held Miraculous boxes. I pulled one out and opened it, not expecting anything and was rewarded accordingly. "This confirms he had two," I said, then counted the spaces. "There are enough slots here for all of the jewels. Getting ours wasn't ever going to be enough."

At the last panel, we found something of a clue. Several shelves held old looking papers, including two weather-beaten maps, one folded to show a particular area of the Himalayas, the other, a decade old map of Egypt. Both sent a shiver of memory through me. "Father mentioned travelling in both of these places," I said softly. I turned my masked eyes to Ladybug. "I'm pretty sure one of the final trips he took my mother on was some sort of small art community nestled in a remote valley within the Himalayas."

"Was that before Hawkmoth?"

"It had to be. We were activated about a year after that trip." I looked at the map in my paws. "What happened on that trip?" I asked no one in particular.

Ladybug placed a hand on my shoulder. "Do you still have those travel records the authorities made you review last year?"

"I do," I said.

"I wonder if any location on these two maps would appear in those records."

I looked at the maps again. "It will take a bit but I can write some sort of script to troll through the data." I turned back to Ladybug. "I don't know if this helps us though. What will it tell us?"

"If we know where he went, we might be able to back into _why_ and what that gives him in his fight against us. Don't forget, he also has the Grimoire. He may well have been searching for someone to help him unlock it's secrets."

The prospect that Father might be able to fully use the Grimoire was something that had kept me up more than a few nights over the last year. His misuse of the time spell had nearly erased me from existence; Ladybug and I still argued over whether the changes we'd made while trying to get me back from the past had any permanent re_purr_cussions.

I looked around the space once more. "I'm a bit torn. It will take time to get the data mining going, but I feel like there are more secrets to uncover here."

Ladybug nodded. "We could use a hand," she said as she popped open the Bug Phone. "Cap and Rena to start? I don't think Bunnix would be helpful – yet."

"Are you kidding?" I laughed. "Maybe we are going about this wrong. You should have her send us back to that moment this mess got started. We stop that—"

"Absolutely not," she said. "You of all people know that time travel has hidden dangers and unintended consequences."

I went crimson; not only had I time traveled to the past, I also knew that at some future point I would accidently trap Bunnix in the past. "Point taken."

"Damn," she said after looking at her phone. "No signal."

"Unsurprising," I said, and scrolled the options on the villain servers. "I think I found a reference to an elevator…" I muttered, as I scanned the lines of code. "Ah!" I exclaimed as I tapped the command I'd seen.

At the exact center of the room, the floor irised open and a panel rose up.

I took Ladybug by the hand and we huddled inside the circle as I tapped the command again. The lift smoothly dropped, and noiselessly whisked us on a brief journey that ended as we rose once more into the atelier, just below the portrait of my mother.

"Well, there's our answer," I said as we stepped off the lift. "The entrance was here all along."

"Entrance to what, exactly?" I heard from behind me.

It took a moment to register that I'd heard my own voice ask the question. Slowly, I turned, and found myself staring at not one, but _two_ Chat Noirs; both were looking at me with narrowed masked eyes. As many times as I'd used that look on someone, it was a bit unnerving to have it turned on me.

I turned back toward Ladybug. "I think this proves my point."

"About what?" she said, her astonished look fixed on the two visitors.

"We messed up something a year ago."

* * *

_**Chat Noir (from a year ago)**_

I was blinded by whatever future-Chat had triggered; it took a few moments for me to blink away the aftereffects only to discover we were standing in Father's atelier. It looked pretty much as I would have expected, although as I turned in a slow circle, it had the air of disuse. Scrupulously clean as always, I would have been hard pressed to have explained why I felt that way.

"Home," I said, turning to Chat. "Why here? And _when_ are we?"

"I don't know the answer to either of those," he said, "but I popped into existence next to you the first time. The Chat we are supposed to meet must be here. Or close."

Future Chat also started to observe the room, and something crossed his face.

"You haven't been here in a while, have you?" I asked, drawing a logical conclusion based on my own trajectory with Father. "When was the last time you saw him?"

Chat continued to look at the space. "New Years, almost two years ago." He sighed. "I see him at the office, of course, but only in small snatches of time. We've not talked to each other in years."

"You work for him?" I asked, incredulous. "I thought I would drop modelling as soon as I could."

Chat turned toward me and smiled. "No, I still model. I'm many multiples _more_ famous now than you are currently, so the pay is pretty good, too. But I am also vice-chair of the board, so there is a fair amount of administrative work I have to do."

I was dumfounded. "But—"

He smiled broader. "Don't worry," he said. "I actually protected myself; I use an agency for the modelling and keep nearly all of the money that brings in. My salary from House of Gabriel adds to it – enough that I've not yet had to beg Father for my trust fund." He looked away. "I'll be able to wait him out; once I turn thirty, I'll be free completely."

Chat looked back. "I also made some rather strategic investments," he said, laughing a bit. "Put that degree to work almost immediately. One happens to be the apartment I bought for Marinette."

"Can we talk about that?" I asked. "I find it hard to believe you've managed to pull off living with her as Chat. And you didn't know she was Ladybug?"

"I know, right?" he smiled wryly. "I guess love _does_ blind you."

"But what about Ladybug?" I pushed, trying to fathom a future where I didn't wind up with her. I was struggling a bit to reconcile her civilian identity with her superhero persona, though the more I processed it, the greater I realized I should have seen it sooner.

"It was evident I wasn't getting anywhere with her," he said. "It started inadvertently with Marinette. I'd dropped in after finally realizing Ladybug was out of reach and poured my heart out to her. Marinette lent a friendly ear, and one thing led to another after that."

I could see that. Despite the throbbing at the back of my head, something about what he'd said resonated with me. I could totally see myself making nightly visits to Marinette. And some part of me seemed to feel I had done _just_ that already.

Our conversation was cut short when a nearly noiseless whirring filled the room; a moment later, Chat Noir and Ladybug rose through the floor of the atelier, directly in front of the portrait of my mother.

It was weird seeing another me, but again, there was a tiny echo that I had seen this Chat before. I was so caught up in the déjà vu that I didn't hear what he said to Ladybug, but Future Chat did.

"Entrance to what, exactly?" he asked.

Chat turned and looked the two of us over. The nagging that I had met him before grew stronger, along with the accompanying headache. That was insane, though – I'd had no such feeling when Future Chat had shown up.

Chat said something to Ladybug which I also didn't hear; Ladybug smiled and stepped down to me. "It's great to see you again, Chat," she said, and the leaned in to plant a kiss on the exposed part of my cheek.

I recoiled as if I'd been burned. "Ladybug?"

She frowned as she pulled away. "What's wrong?"

The pain was getting intense again, and I squeezed my eyes shut against it. Behind me, I heard Future Chat try and explain. "Near as I can figure, he's been dosed with some kind of memory potion."

"What?" I heard the other Chat exclaim.

"Yeah." There was a tense silence, and then he continued. "In my timeline, LB and I are still unaware of the identity of our alter-egos, so there was no need Master Fu to step in."

"I wasn't as fortunate," the other Chat said, turning toward Ladybug. "LB tried to… encourage me to take the potion; I managed to avoid her kind offer but not before she downed it herself."

I looked at Ladybug. "You… tried to make me-well, _him_-take the potion?"

"Not one of my finer moments," she said sadly, face flushed with embarrassment. "It took a ton of help from Chat, but I managed to break the spell's effects." She turned back to the other Chat, looking at him in a way I'd long dreamed she'd look at me. "It was a mistake in the first place to even try."

"You… love… him?" I said. It came out somewhat strangled, as I was breathing really hard for some reason, and gritting my teeth against the nearly incapacitating pain.

"Yes," she said without hesitation. She turned back to me. "But you know that already, Chat. We talked about it when you were here the first time."

"We did?" I said. "I was here?"

Her expression faltered a bit. "Yes," she said, looking back at her Chat. "About a year ago."

The other Chat stepped forward a bit. "We swapped places," he said. "I accidentally revealed my relationship with Ladybug to your Ladybug when I was back." Chat's masked eyes flicked to his Ladybug. "Your Ladybug didn't act on that?"

"She doesn't love me," I said, head throbbing like never before. "And until today, I had no idea she was Marinette."

Chat's eyes snapped back to mine. "How is that possible? You learned that when you were here!"

"No… I don't think I did?" I said, feeling confused and slightly nauseated. "I don't remember meeting you. Either of you."

I saw Chat look at Ladybug. "How is this…?" he started.

I'm not sure what he said as I chose that moment to collapse to the tile.

* * *

_Author's Note: In case you are confused, here's Ep's Quick Reference Guide(tm) to the feline cast..._

_Future Chat (as seen in _Roommates_) comes from a timeline approximately eight years into the future. He is a year beyond his graduation from University._

_Past Chat (as originally seen in _Time & Again_) comes from a timeline approximately one year in the past and is in his last year at Dupont - in U.S. educational terms, is a high school freshman. _

_Current Chat (as last seen in _Night At The Museum_) is in his first year at Le Lycee - in U.S. terms, is a sophomore in high school._

_Yes, I have Post-it notes on my computer to keep it all straight. And it's terribly important, too. ;-)_

_-ep_


	8. To Be, or Not To Be

**Eight: To Be, or Not To Be **

**_Future Chat_**

I dropped to the side of Chat in a flash. "He's out," I said, peeling back an eye. "Did you react this way to the potion?" I asked Ladybug.

"No," she said, dropping on the other side of Chat and efficiently taking his pulse.

"Let's get him upstairs – he'll be more comfortable on the bed," the third Chat said.

I scooped up the insensate form of younger me, and we moved to the door of the atelier; Chat pressed his ear to the door and then nodded. "Clear," he said.

The three of us trotted through the wide atrium, which felt to me as though I were walking through a memory. I'd not been in the mansion physically for a few months; longer since I'd seen Father in person. But I knew the path well, having trod it multiple times to spend those awfully lonely days in my room.

Younger Chat was breathing normally, but his face scrunched from time to time, almost as if he were in REM sleep. I quickened my pace, taking the steps four at a time, reaching the door slightly ahead of Chat and Ladybug. She opened the door for me and I bounded into the space, trying to ignore the feeling I had somehow wandered into a time capsule.

Gently, I placed Chat in Chat's bed, then sat on the edge; Ladybug took the seat opposite and again took his pulse. "It's racing a bit," she said, her eyes registering some alarm. "We might need some help, Chat," she added, turning toward him.

Chat frowned. "Is this medical or do we need Master Fu?"

Ladybug blanched. "He might be the one responsible for this," she said. I could hear some anger in her tightly controlled voice. I could also see some pain in those eyes of hers as she turned toward me. "I feel a bit responsible, too. It was my initial actions that seem to have led to this."

"Maybe, maybe not," Chat said, scratching his chin with a claw tip. "I don't think it's the potion per se. I have more than a sneaking suspicion my actions during my visit back there may have caused this." He looked at me. "And it doesn't feel like a coincidence that the two of you appear on my doorstep hours before Hawkmoth returns to Paris."

I'd not thought about that. "You don't suppose Hawkmoth has a hand in this, do you?"

"He's messed with time before," Ladybug said as she pushed back a bang from Past Chat's forehead.

"Tell us more about what happened to him," the third Chat said. "Just based on this, it feels different."

"I don't have much," I said. "From what I've deduced, though, he seems to get some serious headaches any time his thoughts venture into areas the potion apparently affected." I looked up at Chat. "It's nearly debilitating, but you know us. He intrinsically knows something is wrong—"

"And is doggedly trying to figure it out." Chat nodded, smiling. "It does sound like us."

"I arrived in his timeline to see him clinging outside of Master Fu's. He'd trailed Marinette all the way there using one of our trackers. He'd just heard her tell Fu what was going wrong and was quite perplexed."

"He truly doesn't know he's in love with me?" Ladybug asked. "Well, _past_me, I suppose."

"No," I replied. "He really doesn't." I paused. "You really are Marinette?"

"I can de-transform if you want," she smiled. "Why?"

"I didn't learn that until today either. And I live with you."

Chat's eyes flew wide open and his head snapped to Ladybug, then back to me. "You _live_with Marinette?"

"Yeah," I said. "But as Chat Noir. _My_Marinette doesn't know I'm Adrien."

"How, exactly, is that working?" Chat asked, echoing his younger self syllable for syllable.

"Well," I said, smiling knowingly at Ladybug. "I promised you many years ago not to reveal myself to anyone, and I've kept to that all this time."

She smiled back. "Sounds like something you would do," she said, looking at her Chat.

"Can we return to the fact _you're living with her?!_" he asked.

"Later," I said. "We have more pressing issues."

He nodded, but had my patented _we'll see about that _look. "The more I think about it, the less I feel it's a coincidence you're here," he said. "Purrhaps you're going to give us the insights we need to fight off Father."

"Why would we need to do that?" I asked.

A look passed between Chat and Ladybug. "You don't know, then?" he asked, his expression serious.

"Know what?"

Chat's masked green eyes were hooded, but for a moment, a flash of pain was there. "There's no easy way to say this. He's… Father _is_Hawkmoth."

I slipped off the bed, Past Chat forgotten. I thought back to the elevator I'd seen them come up in the atelier. "The lair is here, then? And has been, all this time?" I tried to process the enormity of the revelation.

"Yeah. We just located it this evening, after nearly a year of looking." Chat looked at me closely. "How far into the future are you from?"

"How close to graduation are you?"

"We just started at Le Lycée," Ladybug offered. She looked down at Past Chat. "He must be in the last year at Dupont."

"Yeah," I said. "If that is true, then I'm about eight years into the future."

"A year out from University," Ladybug observed.

"Yeah."

"And you don't remember _any_of this, do you," she said. It wasn't a question.

"Not this particular trip, no," I said, realizing she was right. "Obviously, I remember going into the future and then returning, but I never learned the identity of Ladybug." I looked at them both. "We are still just partners. I've dated Marinette since the first year I was Chat. As Chat."

Ladybug turned to Chat. "This is bad," she said. "What we did originally to correct the timeline has actually fractured it. Badly."

I nodded. "I was saying the same thing to younger me earlier. The three of us represent three possible divergencies from the timeline. The fact we are all here, in one place, now, means Mistress Time is trying to correct again."

"Which one is right?" Chat asked, looking between us. "Is it this one? Since both of you are here?"

I nodded again. "I think so."

Chat looked like he'd swallowed a lemon. "So, on top of Hawkmoth trying to return and take over Paris, we now also have to deal with a misbehaving timeline?" He actually groaned in a most cat-like manner. "Why not. I can chew gum and walk." He groaned again. "The past is the future, the future is the past," he lamented, putting a paw to his forehead. "It all gives me a giant headache."

I arched a masked eyebrow. "Are you quoting Captain Janeway?"

"Maybe."

Ladybug was looking thoughtful. "I think you're right, Chat; this is all related," she mused. "And this could be a clue as to what Hawkmoth is planning."

I nodded, immediately realizing where she was going. "Or planned," I corrected. "Tell me more about the original time travelling you two experienced."

* * *

_**Current Chat**_

I half listened as Ladybug quickly sketched in my little escapade a year ago, and then brought him through all of the machinations we'd dealt with from Hawkmoth, right up to his double-fake escape from the Louvre. Seeing an older version of myself just a few meters away was a weird experience. He was taller than me, and definitely more muscular; looking at younger me, I could see I was pretty much between the two of them in terms of body shape. Clearly daily outings as Chat were beneficial.

Quite a bit was the same, though. The costume, for one, right down to the bell; the hair was as fly away as ever. His masked eyes were mine, for sure, and I could the same expressiveness I knew I had as he absorbed our end of the story.

As I looked at him, and let Ladybug's words sink in, a horrible thought lodged itself in my brain.

"What happens," I said suddenly, interrupting the two of them, "if we correct the timeline? To these Chats? To me?"

Future Chat looked at me. "What do you mean?"

"If our assumption is correct, that this timeline – _my_timeline – is the correct one, what happens to the two of you? Technically those two versions of me never existed or won't exist." I looked at Chat. "You'll be wiped from existence." I looked down at my bed. "And so will he."

Something flickered across Future Chat's face, and he looked down at Past Chat. "There is a good chance that will happen, yes," he said softly. "I tried to explain it to him earlier; our two timelines are an outgrowth of a mistake you made when you went back in time." He looked back at me. "_This_is the primary timeline, which is why the two of us are here. I don't quite know how, but I suspect it will take all three of us to fix whatever is wrong."

I looked at Ladybug, and the color had drained from her face much as it had to have from mine. I turned back to Future Chat. "I'm not willing to even contemplate taking any actions that would harm either one of you!" I said forcefully.

Chat shook his head and pulled out a pocket watch from his costume pocket. "You already did," he said. "As I explained to the young one, there were four possible outcomes of the potion debacle."

My head was spinning. _Four outcomes? Of course – both of us take the potion, one or the other of us takes the potion, neither of us take the potion. Dear Kwami – that can only mean…_

He nodded, seeing my look of comprehension. "Only three Chats are here. The fourth, further along in the future, sent me the Rabbit Miraculous and in so doing appears to have eliminated _that_timeline from ever happening."

I sank to the edge of my bed. "What if – what if the reason we even _tried_the potion was because we were never supposed to know? Ever?" Waves of depression washed over me. "That has to be what I did wrong – my inadvertent reveal, nearly a year before I should have."

"We don't know that for sure," Ladybug said.

"The potion. It was a viable option in three of the timelines – the ones where we knew each other." I looked up. "You've been right this whole time; Mistress Time has been trying to correct it ever since."

Ladybug slid next to me on the bed and picked up a paw. "I'm as much to blame as you in this," she said. "But the fact that all three of you are here strongly supports Chat's suggestion it's fixable."

"At what cost?" I said dejectedly. "We could lose _this_," I gripped her by the shoulders. "And we run the real risk of hurting them. Or worse."

Ladybug had that thoughtful look she often got when a plan of hers was forming. "Actually, this might be the very thing we've been looking for."

"I don't follow."

She looked between us again, then down to past Chat. "I think the key may very well be in his memories. The key to fixing both the timelines _and_stopping Hawkmoth." Ladybug looked back at me. "I'll go for Master Fu."


	9. When It Rains

**Nine: When It Rains…**

_** Ladybug (One Year in the Past)**_

Marinette bolted from Master Fu's and transformed as she ran up the stairwell to the roof of the building. She paused at the door to the roof just long enough to ping Chat's location; he was barely a rooftop away but moving fast. Very fast – in fact, his dot was moving with an alacrity she'd never seen before.

Tossing her yo-yo back into the air, she started her pursuit, but was hampered by having to stop every few rooftops to re-ping his location. To her surprise, each time she had to check, the map on her phone would need to zoom out further in order to show his current location relative to hers. Frustrated, she snapped the phone shut again and hurried back into the air once more.

As fast as she could fly through the skies over Paris, she was unable to make up any ground on Chat. Dropping out of the sky, she took one final reading and discovered he'd stopped, and was just a few blocks from her position. Now thoroughly upset, she snagged an antenna and swung toward her partner.

There was a building with a slightly higher perch overlooking where the green dot purported to be located, and she vaulted out of her flight into a crouch to land behind a pony wall ringing the edge of the roof. Carefully, she poked her head over and looked down.

What she saw stopped her in her tracks.

Chat was definitely on that rooftop – she could see his form curled up against a brick wall, apparently passed out once more. But that wasn't what had shocked her. It was the taller version of Chat perched on a side wall keeping watch over… Chat. From her distance, it was hard to be sure, but the flyaway hair and general mannerisms she was seeing screamed Chat.

Two Chats? How was that even possible?

Her first impulse was to assume it was an akuma, another CopyCat perhaps. But he didn't seem to be threatening her partner; in fact, every so often, he was dropping down and checking on what she started to think of as _her_ Chat, at one point clearly taking his pulse. Not the actions of a villain bent on claiming a Miraculous. She was torn; by rights, she should rush down there and get to the bottom of the situation, but something made her pause.

Instead, she pulled a page from her partner's playbook and decided to wait and watch. As the day faded into late afternoon, she realized she was going to need yet another excused absence letter from her parents, and wondered if her friends were worried about Marinette's absence. Only when the shadows had started to grow longer across the rooftop did she finally see her Chat stir and sit up.

Ladybug realized she was at a disadvantage without Chat's superior hearing as she watched the two of them converse. They seemed to agree on something, and then the taller Chat pulled something from his pocket. A moment later, there was a blue flash and both Chats were gone from the rooftop.

Her heart stopped. Immediately, Ladybug dove over the edge of her roof and snagged a flagpole to swing to where the two Chats had been; landing in a crouch, she could easily see the space was completely empty. No trace of either of them was there – or, rather, no trace that she could detect. Had her Chat been with her, of course, he likely could have detected some scent that the space had once been occupied; the thought of her partner, though, served only to emphasize his absence.

Still, she walked the space in a deliberate manner, hoping to turn up something and finding absolutely nothing. Sagging back against the wall where she'd seen him curled up, she realized she had lost Chat in more ways than one.

And she knew she was the catalyst for all of it.

Ladybug wasn't sure how long she huddled against the brick. It took the rumbling from her very empty stomach to drag her attention back from her morose thoughts; Paris was in full night mode, with lights cheerfully dancing across the facades of the city. She stood and popped open her Bug Phone, originally intending to check the time. It was still in GPS mode, however, and Chat's green paw print was glowing upon the map of the city.

She frowned – she was certain Chat hadn't leapt away from her, yet clearly, he was somehow back at the mansion. That was followed by some confusion; why would he _still_ be Chat, were he home? Ladybug was well aware that Chat tended to stretch out his time transformed, but she found it unlikely he wandered the hallways of his home _as_ Chat.

Snapping the phone shut, she tossed her yo-yo to the sky and quickly worked her way across Paris to Agreste Manor, landing on a roof fairly close to the mansion. The lights were on in Adrien's bedroom, so she took a chance and leapt over the fence, landing on the windowsill of the one pane of glass open to the space.

Despite the green paw still appearing on her tracker, she could clearly see the space was empty. Just to be thorough, she dropped into the room and carefully moved to the bathroom. The door was partially open, and she slid through it. Aside from the jacuzzi bath being full, the room itself was as empty as the bedroom. She even searched the depths of the massive walk-in closet, poked her head into the sauna, and climbed the steps to the bathroom's window to ensure he wasn't clinging to the ledge outside.

Ladybug sat on the top step and checked the GPS one more time. Stubbornly, the green paw glowed at her, showing Chat less than twenty meters from her location. The tracker had never been wrong before; save for the time he travelled into the future-

_No way,_ she suddenly thought. _He's done it again, hasn't he?_

* * *

_**Chat Noir (Current Day)**_

Past Chat continued to slumber while we waited for Ladybug. "How long was he out the last time?"

"Five hours," Future Chat replied.

I had started pacing, my tail swishing behind me. It was close to three in the morning and as each minute disappeared, I felt increasingly powerless, either to stop Hawkmoth or to help my younger self. As wired as I was, though, I couldn't help a massive yawn, and paused to stretch, cat-like. "I'm close to a record," I said wryly.

"For what?"

"Time transformed," I said, smiling. "I'm closing in on sixteen hours."

He laughed. "That's nothing," he replied. "I went thirty-six the first week I moved in with Marinette. I was paranoid about accidentally revealing myself."

My masked eyes widened. "How did Plagg react?"

"Not well," he chuckled. "We've come to an understanding. And Marinette knitted me a nice hoodie and sewed a matching mask and glove set, so I can hang out with her and still hide my identity."

"I'm still hung up on the fact you moved in with her," I said. "I've obviously, uh," my face flushed a bit, "fantasized about that." I looked at him askance. "I, uh, don't suppose the suit comes off in your timeline, either…?"

Future Chat actually flushed a bit himself. "Ah, no. No, it doesn't." He was perched atop my couch, and despite his much bigger bulk, was pulling it off as gracefully as I did. I guess it shouldn't have surprised me. "Would you mind stopping that?" he asked, his head following me as I moved from wall to wall.

"Sorry," I muttered. "I'm not very good at—"

"Inaction. Yes, I know."

"Sorry," I apologized again, this time with a smile as I came over and leapt to the other side of the couch. I figured I'd balance him out on the other side, though the net effect was perhaps more like a tipped see-saw. "LB and I were going to split up before the two of you arrived," I started, figuring I might as well fill him in. "I have a treasure trove of data to paw through trying to figure out what's significant about Father being in Egypt or Pakistan."

"You say he's on the way back from some secret hideaway?"

"That's our assumption," I said. "After he escaped from us during the Louvre incident, I tracked our private jet until he ditched it in India. We think he was in the Himalayas after that – near as I could determine."

"Are you sure he's really coming back? Or that he's not already here?"

"No," I said honestly. "But we've been covering the city pretty thoroughly during our nightly patrols. Our route is random, so in theory it should be hard for him to hide from us. Then again, it's a big city. But we both feel like he'd have made his presence known were he already here." I looked at Past Chat, who appeared to be sleeping easier than before. I hoped that was a good sign.

"I've been keeping personal tabs on the finances, too. Aside from the corporate auditors," I smiled, "who are not happy to have a teenager looking over their shoulder. But no big expenses or unexplained entries." I yawned again. "That doesn't account for any stashes of cash he had before he left. Lord knows I had my own, so he probably did too."

Chat laughed. "I still use that anonymous payment app."

"It comes in handy. Neither LB nor I carry any money when we're transformed." I looked at Chat directly. "I can't explain why, but I feel like Hawkmoth is actually back in Paris. Already."

Chat nodded. "That would be a typical move for him. Misdirection with the aircraft."

"I'm starting to wish I'd not ripped out all of the security Father put into the mansion," I said. "But having a camera in your room makes you a bit paranoid."

"Wait, _what_?" His masked eyes went wide.

"Father had trust issues," I said. "And I believe he also wanted to catch me coming and going as Chat. I managed to stay a step ahead of him but it got pretty tricky toward the end."

Chat shook his mane at me. "Father was always overbearing, but that never happened to me."

"Count yourself lucky."

"So, do we proceed under the assumption he's here already?" Chat asked.

"It would save me some time," I laughed ruefully. "But I still want to know why he might have been in Egypt especially. That just smacks of trouble." I paused, twisting to look out my bedroom window at nothing in particular. "If he _is_ here in Paris, though, it worries me more that he hasn't yet shown his hand."

A buzzing noise issued from my computer desk, and it took me a moment to place it. We'd carefully removed Chat's baton from the small of his back so could lie down; as I approached my desk, I could see it was vibrating its way across the surface. Snagging it in one paw, I snapped it open, and arched an eyebrow. "Well," I said, turning to Future Chat. "Ladybug is texting."

"Is she on the way back?" he asked.

"Not _that_ Ladybug," I said. "If this is like last time, his baton is still tied to his timeline. This should be the Ladybug you were avoiding."

He dropped from the couch and smoothly vaulted to me. "No way."

I scanned the text. "She's trying to reach her Chat," I said as I started tapping.

"What are you doing? Responding?" he asked as he craned around me to see what was on the tiny screen.

"Yeah," I said, smiling slightly. "We've talked before, too, so this could be interesting."

**_Bugaboo:_**_ Chat, I saw you time travel. I'm in your room now. Where/when are you?_

**_CN:_**_ Hey bug. Future Chat here. _

**_Bugaboo:_**_ Future Chat? Stop joking. I'm worried about you. Seriously, where are you?_

**_CN:_**_ Not kidding. Whatever you did to your Chat, he's comatose on my bed as a result._

There was a long pause before she responded.

**_Bugaboo:_**_ I gave him the potion Master Fu said Ladybug gave you. But since you remember me, I take it you never drank it._

**_CN:_**_ Not for lack of trying. My LB did manage to take it, but we were able to break the spell._

I looked to Future Chat. "Wait. How does Master Fu from her time know about the potion?"

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but from both of our perspectives, we go through the potion mess after returning from the past, right?"

"Yeah. And I don't remember Master Fu talking with his past or future self."

**_CN:_**_ Master Fu got the formula from my Master Fu?_

**_Bugaboo:_**_ That's what he told me._

**_CN:_**_ How is that possible? Did future Fu use your Bug Phone?_

The pause was even longer this time.

**_Bugaboo:_**_ No. And now I wonder who he was talking to._

**_CN:_**_ He'll be here shortly. I'll talk to him._

**_Bugaboo: _**_That seems to b_

I waited but the three dots indicating she'd been working on her response quit. A minute or so later, I looked back to Chat. "Something's interrupted her."

"Yes," he said, his eyes narrowing. "I have a really bad feeling about this."

Past Chat stirred on my bed, and we moved over to him. His eyes fluttered open and locked on mine. "I'm sorry," he said lethargically. "Whatever it is that blocks those memories just knocks me out."

"Don't worry about it," I said. "So," I said thoughtfully, "it hurts worse when you think of Ladybug?"

He smiled crookedly. "Well, not just Ladybug. Usually when I have… uh…" he trailed off, flushing slightly.

"Got it," I laughed. "Your potion was the same in that regard as the one Ladybug took. In her case, though, she just had this fuzziness when venturing into thoughts about our relationship."

My ears twitched at that moment, picking up the _zing_ of my partner's yo-yo. "Ah," I said. "Here she comes!"

Ladybug appeared on my windowsill and paused; her expression was grim. "He's missing," she said simply. "And his apartment is rented to someone else."


	10. Chess Moves

**Ten: Chess Moves **

_**Ladybug (One Year in the Past)**_

Pressed against the wall of the bathroom, Ladybug strained to hear the conversation going on in the bedroom. The Bug Phone was still open in her palm, and she hoped Chat didn't ping her and expose her position.

She wasn't sure, but it _sounded _like Gabriel Agreste. And yet, it didn't.

"He should be here," she heard him say.

"The schedule is correct." This was from a female, presumably Nathalie.

"Are we in the right time?" he asked.

Ladybug thought that was an odd question. Not _is it the right time _but _are we in the right time_.

"There was a chance we'd arrive a week on either side of the event," Nathalie replied. "We accounted for that. Our plan will still work."

"We need Adrien to get to Chat Noir and Ladybug," Gabriel said. "He's the key."

"You're still convinced he's Chat?" Nathalie asked, causing Ladybug's masked eyebrows to go up.

"I've had a year to think about it," Gabriel said. "There's no question in my mind. And he's more vulnerable now than he will be a year from now; especially given the effects of the potion."

The knowing dread in her stomach blossomed into something far worse. For the first time, Ladybug found herself thankful she'd not taken her dose of the potion; if she was hearing the conversation correctly, she had inadvertently been a pawn in some sort of chess game Gabriel was playing. She couldn't fathom exactly _why_he would be after Chat, but she knew someone she could ask.

Of all the times to not have Chat's superior hearing!

Gabriel and Nathalie had moved to the far side of the bedroom, and she was having a really hard time hearing them. Pressing herself a bit closer to the door separating her from the space, she realized the conversation had gone silent.

Intuitively knowing that was bad, she turned quickly and shot her yo-yo through the glass of the window in the bathroom, shattering it into glittering shards that fell to the tile with a symphonic tinkle. She hurled herself out behind it a fraction of a second later. As she sailed through the window, she caught the movement of the door to the bathroom blasting into a million pieces; then, just for a moment, a glimpse of the angry visage of Hawkmoth as he strode through the debris toward her.

Faster than she thought possible, she escaped from the mansion, but not the fear.

* * *

_**Chat Noir (Current Day)**_

All three of us turned to her.

I nodded slowly. "Much like I was erased?" I asked. "This feels all too familiar."

Ladybug dropped out of the window and walked toward me. "Yeah, it does," she said.

"That lends some credence to our thought that this is the primary timeline," Future Chat said. "But without Fu in _this_timeline – does that mean he swapped with another version of himself?"

I nodded again, slowly. "Maybe. I think I know who Ladybug has been talking to," I added. "Which would explain why he knew the formula. And how to tweak it."

Ladybug nodded at me, and continued the thread. "In fact, if he thinks us _not _successfully going through with the potion is the trigger for the timeline fracture, it may explain why he adjusted the formula and tried again with Past Ladybug."

"We have to go back," I said suddenly. "My God," I breathed. "We _have _to go back!" I turned to Ladybug, and knew I had a wild expression. "I've had this nagging sense that Hawkmoth was already back in Paris. What if he's in Paris, but not _now?_ What if—"

The color drained from her face. "He went back to fix his mistake," she finished. "Hawkmoth has to have tried the spell again – but this time, it removed Master Fu from the timeline and shattered it into three distinct versions of you."

"Well, four," Future Chat interjected. "But that Chat knew it was wrong and gave us a chance to fix it," he said, unzipping his costume pocket and pulling out a pocket watch.

"What's that?" I asked.

"The Rabbit Miraculous," he said. "I don't think the holder gets it for a bit longer in your timeline, but suffice it to say the fourth Chat sent it back to me." He looked at me. "It creates a time portal."

"That's how you got here," I said.

"Yes," he nodded.

I looked at Past Chat. "Can you handle it?" I asked. "Clearly we have no way to help you here; past Master Fu is our best chance."

"Yes," he said, smiling weakly.

"I can't go with you," Ladybug said. "One of us needs to stay in case we're wrong, and that plane we've been tracking does have Hawkmoth on it."

"And I can't stay," I nodded. "I need to go back."

"Yes," she said.

I stared at her. I had no desire to leave her. Yet I knew she was right; there was a solid chance that Hawkmoth still existed in some form in our current timeline. We couldn't leave Paris unprotected. Left unspoken had been the fact that without Master Fu, we'd lost access to our extended team. I stepped to her and pulled her into an embrace.

"You'd better come back to me, kitty," she said softly into a feline ear.

"And you'd better be here waiting when I return," I said, leaning down to kiss her.

I turned and Past Chat had hauled himself from the bed and was leaning against Future Chat. "Ready, I guess," I said.

Future Chat triggered something, and the world exploded in a blinding blue-white light.

* * *

_**Ladybug (One Year in the Past)**_

Faster than she thought possible, Ladybug sailed over the rooftops of Paris, glancing over her shoulder every so often to see if she were being pursued. Without Chat's night vision to back her, she was relying on what little her own senses could provide, but near as she could determine, she'd managed to escape Hawkmoth. Unwilling to trust that, though, she continued on across the night sky, randomly changing directions just in case she was being tracked.

She couldn't go to Master Fu, that much was certain; it would expose his location, and create more of a headache. If she were lucky, he might have already departed Paris to collect the ingredients for her potion, effectively putting him out of harm's reach. Unfortunately, that also removed the other members of Team Miraculous from the equation, too. Nothing for it now.

Ladybug wondered a bit at what Future Chat had said about the Guardian. He was right – as far as she could recall, Master Fu had never spoken directly to his future version, she'd been the one chatting back and forth across time and space. What troubled her more was that she'd never questioned his logic, though if she were fair, she'd been unsettled about the whole idea from the start.

Now she understood why and vowed never to ignore that voice of intuition in the future.

Going home to the Bakery wasn't an option, either. Nor did she feel comfortable running to Alya or Nino; that could put them into jeopardy as well. For the first time, Ladybug started to really feel alone; no, she thought, it was actually worse than being alone – she felt abandoned. She was keenly feeling the loss of Chat now, the full payment of her misguided deed finally due. How had she allowed herself to be convinced?

She had enough presence of mind to know that now was not the time for recriminations; if she got out of this, and got Chat back, there would be plenty of time for her to beat herself up emotionally. For now, though, she needed to keep one step ahead of her arch-nemesis. It was hard on a good day; without Chat, it would be nearly impossible.

Her stomach rumbled again, reminding her that she was still hungry, and now running low on energy. Smiling slightly, she felt a certain kinship with her kwami and how she must feel after providing her Lucky Charm. Gauging her position, and how long it had been since she'd seen anything suspicious, she decided it might be safe finally to risk returning home. Ladybug dropped down into an alleyway several blocks from the Bakery and let her transformation go, opting to walk home as a civilian.

* * *

_**Marinette (One Year in the Past)**_

Tikki phased into her purse without comment and the two made good time to the entrance. Her parents met her as she came into the residence, and to her surprise, were not angry at her absence.

"There you are!" her mother smiled. "Chat told us you'd been helping him; he's up on the patio, dear. I sent him up with some dinner, since he's always hungry anyway."

"Thanks, maman," she said, trying to keep the shock off her face.

"Take a plate with you," her mother added, handing her a healthy portion of the dinner she'd prepared.

Marinette tried to smile and took the plate up to her room; Chat was not there, so she pushed up through the skylight, only to stop, dumbfounded.

Not one but _three _Chat Noirs were perched on her railing, smiling at her expectantly. "Hey, Purrincess," they said in unison.

"Chat…?" she said as she pulled herself out and partially stumbled toward them.

One Chat leapt forward and took her into his arms, saving her dinner with a smooth catch by a paw. "Careful," he said with a wink. She knew immediately it was the Chat she had met before from the future.

His embrace was gentle, and as he carefully maneuvered her over to the railing, she closed her eyes for a moment with the memory of how _her _Chat had held her this close. Without really thinking, she ran a hand along his arm, and began to delicately trace a finger around one of the metal accents just below his shoulder; she'd spent many a pleasant hour examining his costume from-

"Hey now," Chat said jovially. "I'm already spoken for."

Her eyes snapped open to see Chat's masked face, eyes dancing with merriment. "Uh, sorry," she said hastily, feeling her cheeks warm with embarrassment.

"Now I understand why you were so comfortable checking me over," one of the other Chats said.

Marinette turned toward the voice and was struck by how young her partner looked when compared to the other two Chats. She reached over and pulled him off the railing and into her arms, hugging him deeply while trying to fight back the tears. "Yes," she said simply.

Though he had tensed initially, Chat relaxed slightly and then returned the embrace. She buried her face in his black-cladded chest and, voice muffled, said: "This has to have been one of the worst ideas I've ever come up with."

There was a long pause, and she could feel him tense up slightly; Future Chat started to say something, but Chat actually started to laugh. "No, Milady," he said, "that would be not falling in love with me out of the gate."

Despite everything, _despite _what she had done to him, here he was taking the high road like always. Marinette pulled her head back and saw him smiling down at her; his eyes were narrowed, not out of anger, but as if he were fighting a massive headache. And yet, he was _smiling_at her. "I may have forgotten our relationship," he said, somewhat haltingly, "but nothing could wipe away how I _feel _about you."

"We'll get it back," she said, softly. "If it's the last thing I do, we'll get your memories back. I don't know how, or when, but I promise I'll make you – _us_– whole again."

"I'm glad you brought that up," the Third Chat said as he balanced atop her railing. "I suspect if we are successful in what we need to accomplish, he'll be restored as if none of this ever happened."

"And you would be…?" Marinette asked.

"Milady, I am hurt," Third Chat said as he made a show of frowning. "I assumed you'd recognize me young or old, infirm or-"

"Chat," she said, rolling her eyes and sighing. "Let me rephrase. _When_are you from?"

"About nine years into the future, from this point." He looked at her for a moment. "The three of us represent the divergent paths time took after Chat's initial visit with you last year."

"The three?" she said, looking back at her Chat and slowly nodding. "I see. You're suggesting that we need to fix something from Chat's first visit; does that also imply that this timeline, and yours, are invalid?"

"Yes," Future Chat said. He looked haunted as he added: "We're not entirely certain what needs to be fixed, nor do we truly know what will happen to all of our timelines. But we are reasonably certain Hawkmoth has had a hand in adding additional time turbulence, as it were." He paused. "We also think he's here, with you, in this timeline."

Marinette was nodding more firmly. "He is. I was just at the mansion," she said, looking back to her Chat. "Your logo was on my tracker, just like the last time you visited the future"

Future Chat was nodding now. "He was there, just not in this timeline."

"Exactly." She couldn't help but reach up and brush a lock of his blonde mane away from the mask. "I'd just about gone out of my mind when I saw you disappear with Chat," she said. "So I rather foolishly rushed over there and let myself into your room."

Chat's eyes widened. "Ladybug. In. My. Room," he said, almost dreamily.

She rolled her eyes. "I searched, obviously," she continued, "but came up empty. That's when I texted you from the bathroom—" she looked to Future Chat.

"And suddenly quit," he said.

"Yeah, because I heard – well, thought I heard – Gabriel Agreste in the main bedroom. But his voice was just a bit different; he was talking with Nathalie." Marinette looked at all three Chats. "It was Hawkmoth, of course, and he is convinced he knows Adrien is Chat. And from what he was saying to Nathalie, he arrived here ahead of when he needed to be here."

Future Chat looked to Third Chat. "The Louvre," he said. "We're only a few days away from the showdown we had with him. He's going to try for us again, but this time has had a whole year to prepare."

He turned back to Marinette. "Hawkmoth's used some variant of the time spell again, though this time it appears to have wiped out Master Fu. At least, he's missing from my timeline. Both of us think _your _Master Fu is actually from our time."

A look of recognition appeared on Marinette's face. "That explains how he knew what changes needed to be made to the potion; he's the one who made it the first time. He never spoke to his future self, did he?"

"No."

Marinette looked ready for battle. "The old man and I are gonna have words," she said. "And he'd better have some darn good answers."


	11. Rectifying Matters

**Eleven: Rectifying Matters**

_**Chat Noir (Present Day Version, One Year in the Past)**_

As weak as he was, we agreed to leave Ladybug's version of Chat behind in her bedroom under the watchful eyes of the older Future Chat, though both of my selves apparently really wanted a piece of the Guardian. Marinette had managed to talk some sense into them, reasoning that being ambushed by three angry felines was not likely to get us very far; besides, she had enough anger for the four of us combined. Following her across the rooftops of Paris, I felt strongly that my role in the drama about to play out would be more to protect the wizened master from her wrath.

We didn't talk at all on the way to the apartment, which was unnerving me. I'm normally the chatterbox when on patrol, knowing that Ladybug was merely humoring me with her well-timed affirmations; today, more than ever, I really wanted to find out what had gone wrong after I'd returned to my own timeline, but her tight-lipped expression didn't offer a way in.

A few rooftops out, I finally skidded to a rubbery stop and planted myself in front of her. "Hey," I said as she rammed into me unexpectedly. "Before we do this, I'd like to know what went down between you and Chat."

Her eyes flashed. "Why?"

"It will give me the context to understand your actions," I said. "And, as a cat, I'm genuinely curious to know how we went so far off the rails, relationship-wise."

Ladybug tried to extricate herself from my inadvertent hug. "I'm not certain that would be helpful," she said, carefully removing my paws from her arms. "And we don't have time for this."

"Humor me," I said as I leapt up to the brick half wall.

Sighing, perhaps realizing I wasn't likely to give this up, she crossed her hands and started pacing. "Just before the two of us went to the Sweethearts Ball, Master Fu reached out to me," she started. "We both knew that we were coming up on when the time travel was supposed to take place, and I have to admit, it was freaking us out."

I raised a masked eyebrow. "I'd not considered there would be a chain effect," I mused. "That your Chat would be the one to travel to a past time."

Ladybug nodded. "It was in the back of my mind, though I knew Chat wasn't thinking about it seriously." She looked at the sky as she continued pacing. "Master Fu was concerned, but we shrugged it off and let our timeline play out as we thought it would."

"Did you have an akuma at the ball?"

She nodded again. "Yeah. You could have warned me."

"I tried to," I said. "You were the one more concerned about-"

Ladybug waved me off. "I know, I know," she laughed darkly. "A lot of good it did me, too. Anyway, we met on your favorite rooftop after the Ball, and when the time travel _didn't_happen, I thought we were clear."

"Logical."

Suddenly, she stopped pacing, and turned to me. "Do you still wear it?"

"Wear what?"

"The ring I – well, the ring your Ladybug gave you?"

My masked eyes widened, and unconsciously, I felt for the gift Marinette had given to me the night I'd gone back in time. I'd learned some time ago how to selectively hide details of my costume, which had come in handy during our fight at the Louvre last year. "Yes," I answered as my fingers twisted the ring. It felt as though it were just below the fabric of my costume.

She smiled at me, the first time _this _Ladybug had expressed that emotion since I'd returned. "Even though both of us knew about the gifts for each other – the necklace, the ring - we still swapped them the night of Sweethearts." She looked away again. "It was kind of our way to say to each other we'd made it past the worst of it, that we could finally head down the path you and your Ladybug had taken."

I smiled at Ladybug. "That is very romantic."

"It was," she said softly. "Then Master Fu arrived at the Bakery a few nights ago."

Arching a masked eyebrow, I said rather skeptically, "He doesn't generally make house calls."

"No," she said, "he doesn't. It served to accentuate how serious he thought matters were, and why his suggestion was the obvious way forward."

"I don't understand," I said, perplexed. "Aside from his lack of travelling, this timeline is still unfolding pretty close to mine."

Ladybug frowned as she turned back to me. "That was what worried Master Fu. He felt Chat _should _have gone back in time; he called it a pre-destination paradox."

I nodded. "Historical events would only unfold properly because he'd been part of them in the first place – and would need to be again."

"Exactly," she said. "Master Fu assumed the time travel would still happen; he was quite adamant that you had created an issue with your inadvertent reveal to me, and said the only way to prevent it would be to wipe our memories."

I frowned. "I don't remember travelling more than once," I said. "But I suppose I wouldn't, since it would have been him this time."

"Exactly," she repeated as she started pacing again. "He convinced me it was the best option; I fought it, but he was rather insistent." She looked at me again as she went past me for the fiftieth time. "The rest you know."

I dropped off the wall and pulled my baton out. "I'm sorry this happened," I said. "As we said earlier, my Ladybug and I are reasonably sure I did mess up when I came back that first time; it's led to this mess we are in now."

Ladybug gave me a tired smile. "We'll work it out," she said. "Come on."

I leapt into the sky behind her and we continued onward to Master Fu. With the urgency of the situation, we eschewed finding an alley and dropping our transformations in favor of landing on the roof of his building and vaulting down the emergency stairwell to his floor. Per usual, Master Fu was waiting at his doorway when we burst into the hallway together.

The wizened Guardian looked us over and smiled his cryptic smile. "Chat," he nodded, "Ladybug. Please come in."

Immediately, and in a way I'd be hard pressed to explain, I knew _this _Master Fu synched with my timeline. "Where's the Fu for this timeline?" I asked as we entered his small space. Per custom, I folded myself into a cat stance on one corner of the rug; Ladybug, still troubled, remained standing.

If my question caught him off guard, Master Fu hid it well. "I'd hoped he'd swapped with me, much as you did earlier," he said, inclining his head as he, too, sat down.

"He's not in my timeline," I said.

Fu nodded as if I had confirmed something for him. "Ah."

"Why the potion? It didn't work the first time."

Master Fu looked over my shoulder at Ladybug. "As I'm sure Ladybug has told you already, the duo in this timeline have not experienced the time travel event as you did. And my arrival here, replacing myself, told me Hawkmoth had used the spell just as he was destined to do; the effects, though, appeared to have been different. My worry became twofold: your original experience introduced an error that did not get corrected on that first trip; the second trip didn't happen for the Chat in this timeline, which meant it would/could/should still happen at some point."

My eyes narrowed. "The reveal," I said simply. "Wipe Chat's memory, and he'd have no way to accidentally let Ladybug know about their future relationship."

The Guardian nodded, sagely. "I made some changes to the potion I'd created for Ladybug the first time, and to be safe, gave Ladybug some insider information on how Chat would react based on my recollection of events."

"Can you reverse it?" I asked directly.

Fu looked at me. "I don't think—"

"Can you _reverse it_?" I asked with more emphasis. "For my Ladybug believes the way to stop Hawkmoth is locked up in those blocked memories."

Master Fu's expression changed. "Explain."

"Hawkmoth is _here_, right now. His use of the spell this time around appears to have allowed him to travel from my timeline to this one." I looked to Ladybug. "The local Chat knows more about this timeline than we do; without him, we run the risk of floundering our response."

"You have to understand, Chat," Fu said as he stroked his beard. "The potion didn't just block his memories; they are, well and truly, gone."

I felt suddenly deflated. "Are you really saying there is no way to restore them?" I let it sink it a moment. "No way for us to fight off Hawkmoth?"

That cryptic smile appeared. "Not with a potion," he said. "Future Chat holds the answer," he added.

I looked at him. "How did you know—"

"That's not important at the moment, Chat," he said simply. "What is important, though, is that you and he are here, now. Clearly Mistress Time is attempting to fix both my mistake and your earlier one."

"How?" I heard Ladybug ask.

"Go back," I said, picking up the thread. "Stop _this _Ladybug from giving the potion to Chat."

Master Fu shook his head. "No. That event won't take place if you go to the true nexus of the problem."

I felt the color drain from my face. "Go further back?" I asked, seeing him nod. "And keep myself from revealing anything to Ladybug."

"Yes."

"Will that be enough?" Ladybug asked. "To reset the timelines?"

"Maybe," Master Fu said, still stroking his beard.

"If I do this," I asked, "what will happen to each of us?"

Fu looked at me. "Everything will return to normal," he said cryptically. "But there will be changes in order for the timelines to sync up properly once more."

My body went cold. "Master Fu," I said carefully, "I don't want to lose anything I've gained over these past few years." I looked over to Ladybug behind me. "I'm not sure any of us want that. What you are asking me to do could irreparably change everything we've experienced."

"Yes," Master Fu said simply. "And I don't suggest this lightly, Chat. I will be as affected as you. All of us will."

I stared at him, searching for any sort of argument against his recommendation but realizing there were none. I had, indeed, created this mess; whatever key we thought Chat had inside him could only be unlocked if I did as Master Fu directed. "Will this send Hawkmoth back to my time? To his _proper_time?"

"We won't know for certain until we try," Fu replied, "but there is a better-than-average chance he will. And you and Team Miraculous are better equipped to handle him then and there than here in this timeline."

"I don't really have a choice, do I?" I said quietly.

"No." Master Fu looked at me with some compassion. "These events were set into motion long ago, Chat. We need to see them to their conclusion." He paused. "And then, deal with the consequences."

Bleakly, I nodded and stood to go. "All right," I said somberly. "This is nearly as bad as that classic _Star Trek_ episode."

To my surprise, Ladybug said: "The one where Kirk has to let the woman he loves die?"

I turned. "Yes," I said.

"Oh, Chat," Ladybug said, searching my eyes and trying to come up with something to say. But she saw the pain of knowledge in my eyes, and just pulled me into a hug instead. "For what it's worth," she whispered, "I'll do everything I can to ensure we still get together."

I felt myself smiling. "I'm going to hold you to that, Milady."


	12. Ripples

**Twelve: Ripples**

_** Chat Noir (Present Day Version, One Year in the Past)**_

We returned to the Bakery in silence, wending our way through the night sky with only the heavy weight of my thoughts between us. I wasn't entirely thrilled with the path I was facing, but was resolved to take it if it meant helping Past Chat and possibly giving us a chance to defeat Hawkmoth once and for all. Still, the outside chance that I, too, would, somehow wind up being reset troubled me greatly. Almost as much as possibly hurting my other two versions of myself.

The missing Fourth Chat loomed large.

Landing on the rooftop of the Bakery, I wasted no time filling in the other Chats on our new plan. Younger me frowned, but older me was nodding, and had pulled out the Rabbit Miraculous even before I'd finished speaking.

"This is why _I_ am here," he said as he handed it to me. "Bunnix knows how to work this better than I do, but I suspect in our case, just think where you want to go and it'll take you."

I took the watch. "Not the only reason," I smiled. "You were the one to gather the posse, as it were."

He flashed my smile back at me. "And saved Past Chat from falling to his death," he added.

"Thanks for that, by the way," Past Chat said.

I paced the rooftop, though, one item really bothering me. "If I do this—"

Future Chat stopped me. "You have to," he said. "What happens to us – the other versions of you - will work out as they should have," he said, smiling at me. "I'm reasonably certain this is the last time we'll see you," he added, eyes flicking to Ladybug and then Past Chat.

My ears went straight up. "Chat! I won't—"

"I have faith I'll be fine," he said. "My life will continue, hopefully as it was supposed to originally. All of us, actually."

"I… I don't know if I can do this," I said, sliding down into a seated position against the railing.

Ladybug knelt beside me. "You can," she said firmly. "I know it. I can _feel_ it."

I looked up at her through my bangs. "That makes _one_ of us."

Past Chat came over and the three of them formed a protective circle around me. "No," he said, "all of us know you can do this. Even you."

I looked at them – the two versions of me and the Ladybug I'd gotten to know a year ago. All of them looked at me with the confidence I knew I was lacking; still, I didn't want to fail them, or Paris for that matter. In the end, it really wasn't a decision as much as just the next logical step.

"Well," I said as I stood up, trying to steel my resolve before I faltered. "Here goes nothing."

"Good luck, Chat," Ladybug said, as she kissed me on the cheek.

I caught the other two Chats with a nod, then looked down at the Rabbit Miraculous. It seemed so innocuous in my paws, it was hard to understand the power within it was nearly as great as my own. Closing my eyes, I thought back to that day in the park when I encountered Storm Weather for the second time…

* * *

_**Chat Noir (Present Day Version, Three Years in the Past)**_

…and felt something tingle across my skin. I opened my eyes to find myself crouched behind a sedan about where I knew I would come to rest after trying to get Stormy Weather to give up. She'd responded by laughing and blasting me with a massive gust of wind from her umbrella.

My feline hearing picked up my screams as I flew through the air, only to ping-pong through the vehicles and come to rest on the street. As earlier me lay there, flattened, I leapt out to him and crouched close to his feline ears. "Chat, listen carefully. I don't have much time and Ladybug is approaching."

Almost like I was watching myself in split screen, I looked up… at me. "This is happening _again_?"

"Sort of. You've time-travelled back to your own past. No matter what, you _must_ let events play out as they should. Whatever you do, it is imperative that you _not_ reveal your true identity to Ladybug," I implored, then paused. "Nor can you reveal your knowledge – and feelings – for her alter-ego."

He looked at me, and I could tell it clicked immediately for him. "You're me, aren't you? From even later into the future."

"Yes, about a year from your normal time." We both turned, our feline ears twitching in unison as we picked up Ladybug's approach. "Good luck. And remember – no changes. Do everything _exactly_ the same as before. You'll see me again, I think, after CopyCat."

He rolled his eyes but nodded. "Got it." He quickly flattened himself back to the pavement, and I leapt back to a hiding spot behind one of the parked vehicles.

Ladybug came down her yo-yo, and I heard her converse with Chat just as she had all those years ago. To his credit, Chat performed his cheeky flirting with her much as we had done during what I liked to think of was our rookie period. Peeking around the corner of the car, I watched as they leapt away to give Stormy Weather chase, and then sagged back against the metal. I wondered if _this_ was what was supposed to have happened originally, and further wondered if I'd have a new memory when I returned to my own time.

It gave me a headache.

Pulling the Rabbit Miraculous back out, I wondered if it would know where I needed to go next. This time, I kept my eyes open and watched as the blue-white energy enveloped me.

* * *

_**Chat Noir (Present Day, Two Years in the Past)**_

Blinking to clear the stars from my vision, I was perched atop the fence ringing the park, right beside Past Chat, who appeared to be in mid-sentence.

"…someone your own temperature…" he trailed off, realizing that the park was empty and it was well after dark.

"Chat," I said quietly. To be honest, I expected I'd be returned to the Bakery rooftop; finding myself here told me there were more steps than I'd realized. This was becoming less _Star Trek _and more _Quantum Leap_.

The cat-ear-topped blonde mane turned toward me. "Whoa. Where's that akuma?" His head snapped back to the street. "She was just right there—" he started, pointing to the spot with a paw.

"Listen to me carefully," I said, reaching my own paw to his shoulder and turning him toward me. "This is one year in the future from where you were a moment ago," I started, wondering if this was what I was supposed to do. "You are about to learn things, to see things you should not. When you return to your own time – and this vital – you cannot reveal _anything_ you find out here and now with Ladybug." I paused. "And I mean _anything_."

Younger me looked a bit confused. "I'm in the future? Is this something my Miraculous allowed me to do?"

"No," I replied. "Ladybug will explain it to you when you see her. But remember: when you return, you must guard what you know about the future. Share it with _no one_."

Something clicked for Chat. "Got it," he said, much as older me had.

My ears flicked – I could hear Ladybug's yo-yo as she approached. As much as I knew this was my time, I also realized she couldn't see me. Not yet. I looked at Chat one more time as I pulled out the Rabbit Miraculous. "Good luck," I said as I was enveloped in the blue-white flash.

* * *

_**Chat Noir (Present Day version)**_

When the glow faded, I took a deep breath, recognizing the knot-in-time Past Chat and I had Cataclysmed away while floating in the weird space/time area created by the Entropic Transformation.

To my surprise, the two of us were already there, readying our ring hands. In this scenario, I realized with a cold shudder that _I _was Future Chat. "Hang on a second," I called out, and watched as the two turned toward me in shock.

"Chat?" they both said in unison.

"Yeah," I acknowledged as I walked toward them and the spinning ball of energy just in front of them.

One of the two Chats smiled. "You made it," he said.

I smiled back. "I told you I would," I laughed. "How bad was it?"

"Living through those early days? Again?" He grimaced. "The worst. If I have to fight Monsieur Ramier ever again, it will be too soon."

_Little do you know_, I thought. "Good. But they went in order? All of the akumas?"

"Yes, just like before." He looked across to what I presumed was Past Chat.

"I'm guessing Master Fu put you here?" I asked, looking at Past Chat.

Past Chat nodded. "He did. Fortunately, he added vanilla to whatever that potion was he made me take," he added, grimacing at the memory. "It was still foul, but I woke up here and found you." He grinned. "Well, this other you."

"Did you have any contact with Ladybug from the past?" I asked, my tone perhaps a bit more urgent than I'd intended.

"No," Past Chat said, and then frowned. "Why? Should we have?"

"I don't think so," I said, eyes flicking to Future Chat. "So, then, CopyCat took you out then?"

Chat flushed. "Yeah. Not one of my finer moments. Even the second time around." His eyes widened. "But Ladybug—"

I held up a paw, and angled my head toward Past Chat. "And will again," I said.

Past Chat looked between us. "I'm not gonna like what's coming, am I?"

"Think of it as an opportunity for growth," I said. "Now, guys, as much as I'd love to chat, we don't have much time-"

"I hate to point this out," one of them said, "but the three of us are standing in the very definition of timelessness."

That made me laugh. "Well, I guess that's accurate." I looked at the two versions of me, and felt my heart hammering as the moment I'd been dreading was finally at hand. "This knot, as you likely now understand, is time tangled because of me. My actions, and mine alone."

I looked up at the energy. "I am furrvently hoping that taking this out will restore time to it's proper, original flow."

"What happens to us?" the younger of the two Chats asked.

"Honestly? I don't know."

The other two Chats looked at each other, and then back at me. "Wow," one said.

"Exactly," I nodded. "On three?" I asked as I raised my ring hand.

They took up equidistant positions around the know and raised their hands, too.

"Three!" I said, followed by: "Cataclysm!"

In unison, the three of us pressed our activated hands to the knot, and the world exploded in a burst of while light.


	13. Starting Over, Again

**Thirteen: Starting Over, Again **

_**Chat Noir (Two Years in the Past)**_

My vision cleared, and I found myself perched atop the fence outside the park, a few meters from my photo shoot and staring at the akuma I'd transformed to face. "…pick on someone your own temperature," I heard myself saying, somewhat pleased by my turn of phrase. It was nice to finally have an outlet for my corny puns.

And then I blinked again.

For a fraction of a second, it felt like I had been somewhere else, and yet, it _didn't_. I couldn't put my paw on it, but something seemed off. Looking down at the akuma, though, I realized I had bigger concerns at play, and soldiered on.

I had to blink one more time – Stormy had said something to me.

I swung down off the fence and used a hand and foot to carefully slide down the fencepost, twirling my tail as I did so. "Listen," I said with full Chat Noir charisma, "I'm _feline_ more generous than usual today. So cool down and we'll call it quits, 'kay…?"

* * *

_**Chat Noir (Eight Years in the Future)**_

I must have dozed off there on the railing in the warm sun, for I was startled awake by a bright flash of energy, followed by some disturbance in the apartment. Landing in my pounce crouch, I took a brief second to apologize to the smashed coffee mug laying in pieces on the balcony before creeping back into the apartment.

Nothing was amiss, but my baton was buzzing its way off the kitchen counter. I'd taken it off with the intent of lounging on the couch and had forgotten about it. I popped it open to see the very worried face of Ladybug. "Chat! Where are you?"

"Home," I said, nonplussed. "I was apparently taking a little catnap," I added before registering her furtive glances offscreen. "What's wrong?" I asked. "Where are you?"

"Chateau Le Blanc," she said, still glancing off screen. "An akuma has taken over the design studio—"

I was already vaulting out my bedroom slider, trying to tamp down my anxiety. That was exactly where Marinette was supposed to be today. "On my way now," I said, as I leapt off my balcony and into the air. "Be there in less than five."

"Belay that, kitty," she said. "We need Cap and Rena. And maybe Viperion."

I hit the roof of the building across from mine and crouched, phone still open. "It's that serious?" I said, my stomach knotting.

"Yeah," she said, turning back toward me. Her look softened slightly. "Marinette is safe," she said softly. "I got her and most of the staff she was working with off the floor before it completely took the place over."

"Milady—"

"Thank me later. Get our friends and your cute kitty butt over here, pronto."

I arched an eyebrow as I started to run for the roof edge. "Milady, I had no idea you'd noticed."

"How could I not?" she laughed. "Especially clad in tight leather as it is."

I laughed as I snapped the baton shut and continued toward Master Fu's new apartment. For a brief moment, the vaguest sense of déjà vu washed over me, like I had done some version of this already. I shook it off, though, and moved as fast as I could toward the Guardian. I trusted Ladybug to protect my girlfriend, but I didn't want either of them in harm's way any longer than was strictly necessary.

* * *

_**Chat Noir (Present Day)**_

"Chat?"

I felt like I had run several Ironman events back-to-back; every muscle felt world-weary, and I had a headache like no other. "Am I dead?" I asked.

Ladybug's comforting scent grew nearer, followed by a gentle, yet sizzling, kiss on the lips. "You tell me."

"I need further data points," I said, trying not to grin. "Maybe just one more kiss…?"

My partner obliged. This one lingered. "No, I think I'm very much alive."

"Good," she said, "though you had me worried there for a bit."

I felt my masked eyes snap open. We were on my favorite rooftop, the one overlooking the Seine and the marvelous angle on Notre Dame. Ladybug was holding a coffee cup, and I could see one close to my paw on the tile beside me. "How long was I out?" I asked, a little bit afraid of what I was seeing, frantically searching for lost memories.

That made me smile – knowing to look for lost memories told me something, didn't it?

My masked eyes snapped down to my non-ring hand, and I felt with one paw the ring Marinette had given me. Quickly I snapped my attention to Ladybug, ignoring her perplexed expression in favor of the Le Chat Noir pendant she was proudly wearing.

_It worked?_ I thought. _But I'm not where I expected._

"Chat?" Ladybug asked, this time with genuine concern. "What's wrong?"

"I… I feel like I've lost some time," I said honestly. "Look, I had a great time tonight," I smiled. "Maybe next year, you can take Adrien to Sweethearts?" I asked, hoping to get a very _particular _answer.

Ladybug smiled warmly at me. "I don't know," she said, leaning in for another kiss. "I think I'd rather see you in head-to-toe skintight leather than those stupid suits your father makes." She paused for a moment. "No offense, of course."

"None taken," I said, my heart beating so hard, I was sure she could hear it.

_My kwami! The Night at the Museum hasn't happened yet! And I _know_ how it goes. I know… how to defeat Father. We have a real chance._

"Milady," I said as I pushed myself up a bit more. "I need to run a quick errand; can I drop by the Bakery later?"

"Sure," she said, a bit perplexed again.

I kissed her, deeply. "I can't tell you enough how very much I love you," I said.

"No," she laughed as I leapt into the night. "But you keep right on trying."

* * *

Master Fu met me at the door to his apartment, as usual. "Chat," he said as he bowed me into his small space.

I'd risked coming in via the roof-access staircase, eschewing dropping my transformation in favor of expediency. Folding myself into my patient cat stance, I waited for the Guardian to join me at his small rug. "Are you… you?" I asked, getting right to the point.

"Yes," he nodded. "Like you, I appear to have retained my memories of the year that has yet to happen."

"You told me the last time this happened that Miraculous holders wouldn't be affected by changes in the timeline."

"That pertained to changes from the Grimoire spell," he said. "This is a whole other matter entirely."

"Then why—"

"Do we remember? Did we lose a year?"

I nodded.

He answered me with another question. "Did you go into the repair of the timeline with the express idea of protecting everyone?"

"Yes," I said. "Wasn't that the point?"

"It was," he nodded sagely. "And now we are here. In a position to thwart Hawkmoth's actions in a few days at the museum, and maybe, just maybe, put an end to his reign of terror."

"I did this?" I asked.

"In a roundabout way," he said. "Your desire to repair the timeline was based on your pure intention to protect the people you care about, and the city you love." He smiled again. "Mistress Time appears to have granted you your wish."

"So that year – where Father was overseas, trying to come up with a way to defeat us – has yet to happen? We can actually stop it? Stop _him_?"

"I want to caution you here, Chat," Master Fu said. "Time moves as it should, not as we want it to. I expect we can alter some aspects of what Hawkmoth intends to do, but the general shape of things to come won't change."

I felt my face harden slightly. "So we _won't_ necessarily be able to defeat him at the Louvre."

"No," Master Fu said, "but you'll likely be able to make his life harder while he's on the run." He paused. "You have the tools to do it," he said, inclining his head at me.

"I don't understand," I said blankly.

"You do," he said. "Now, go get some rest. You have some long days ahead of you, and a very overprotective father still trying to unmask Chat Noir."

"All right," I said, unsure exactly but trusting in the Guardian. "Thanks."

* * *

I'd forgotten that at this point in the timeline, Father was beginning to closely monitor Adrien's movements; in a few days, he'd nearly unmask me as Chat Noir save for some last minute legerdemain on my part. It was only then, as I avoided the newly mounted exterior cameras on the mansion and thought about how I'd used Max's program to evade Father's security measures did I finally understand what Master Fu had been saying.

Taking my own advice, I allowed the next few days leading up to our overnight at the Louvre to roll out as they should have, participating in events as I remembered them without trying to change them –yet. The only difference this time out was not having to restore Ladybug's memories of our relationship. That, and I crept into the basement a few days earlier than before, implanting Max's software on what I now knew were servers hosting both House of Gabriel and Hawkmoth.

By the time I joined Marinette on the bus ride to the Louvre, I'd spend multiple nights going deeply into the servers, planting code in places only someone as talented as Max would locate. I made copies of everything I found, including a particularly interesting set of transactions for a hotel somewhere in Pakistan. Above all else, I put rules-based firewalls around every last Euro of House of Gabriel funds, triggering massive financial audits by the accountants any time anything more than a small amount was expensed. That had already caused some furrowed brows on Nathalie, giving me some clue that I'd affected their flexibility.

My final surprise would hit them far later.

The fight at the museum played out nearly as I remembered it from the first time, and ultimately, I found myself holding the faux Moth Miraculous in my paw, and despite knowing this was how it would end, still feeling just as angry at being had as I had been before. Unlike before, though, I found myself smiling down at faux Hawkmoth before calling for Cataclysm and releasing the butterfly from the brooch.

Nathalie appeared as expected once the purple butterfly had been purified; we let the authorities take her away. As we watched her marching off, Ladybug took me aside there in the Egyptian exhibit. "You want to explain to me, now, what's been going on?" she asked.

"What do you mean, Milady?" I replied coyly.

She arched a masked eyebrow. "You're not, are you?"

I answered her by leaning down and kissing her. "All I'll say, bug, is that we have a long year ahead of us."

She frowned as we headed out of the museum. "I'm not sure I like the sound of that."

"Let's just say I may have stacked the deck in our favor," I replied slyly.


	14. Epilogue

**Epilogue **

_**Nathalie**_

Nathalie hurried through the monsoon-drenched streets of Mumbai.

This was the fifth hotel in a week; the fourteenth city in the four months they'd been on the run. While their escape from Paris had gone as planned, they had encountered nothing but difficulty once leaving French airspace. The House of Gabriel jet had been immediately recalled, forcing them to land in the mountains of Spain and escape across the Pyrenees with little more than the clothes on their back. Gabriel's extensive network of shady connections got them to Pakistan, but it was two weeks later than planned.

That wouldn't have been an issue, save for the fact their funds had been frozen for some reason, including the hidden accounts Gabriel had set up for just such an escape. Every last Euro had been was beyond reach, so help had dried up in that dusty town they'd wound up in. Nathalie had even been unable to access any of their servers – House of Gabriel or the private ones Hawkmoth used – so she was nearly incapable of determining the full extent of the damage done.

Nearly, not totally.

What little access she still had was through the jump access point on her workstation in the atelier. It wasn't much, but it was enough that she had determined that little urchin had been behind all of it. Oh, he had smiled at her, tolerated her efforts to smooth his life in the face of his father's demands, but in the end, when he'd had the chance, he'd plunged the dagger deep.

He may not be Chat Noir, as Gabriel had originally thought, but he certainly seemed to have some of the cunning the superhero had displayed on more than one occasion. As well as the brilliant mind they'd run up against more times than she cared to admit.

Pausing beneath an overhang to catch her breath, Nathalie wondered how to tell her employer that it was over. They had no money, no safe harbor to turn to; Interpol was actively looking for them, too, so short of running to the mountains, they were out of options.

Shaking her head, she plunged back out into the storm.

* * *

_**Chat Noir**_

I flipped in through my bedroom window and landed in a crouch, taking in the space. As Adrien, my first official act as a homeowner had been hiring a contractor to eradicate every last monitoring device in the mansion; the final coat of paint was still drying in some parts, and the smell was all the more acute for my feline nose. At long last, though, I finally felt some modicum of privacy – and the freedom to transform without having to do it under my covers.

Tonight, though, I stayed as Chat, and crept to the bedroom door. I'd intentionally given the staff the night off, and save for a slumbering Gorilla (I could hear him snoring in his room upstairs), the mansion was quiet. I opened the door and deftly flipped over the mezzanine railing, landing in the center of the foyer in a crouch; one vault, and I was inside the atelier.

I slid behind Nathalie's old desk, and having used Max's program to crack her account, had already reviewed gigs of data associated with Hawkmoth's activities. Tonight, though, I was checking on the script I'd started the night of the museum escapade; it was ready with some new results.

I punched it up on her old screen. There were nearly two terabytes of data on Chat Noir, Ladybug and Miraculouses in general. My original intent had been to scrub anything that connected the heroes with their civilian identities; I'd completed that last night. The task this evening was to review research that Father had been doing with respect to the Peacock Miraculous. It had led many dead ends, but I could clearly see someone he cared for had used it, and they had been injured by it as a consequence.

I looked up at the painting of my mother at the far end of the space, seeing it with new eyes. Literally – with my enhanced feline vision, something stood out for me that hadn't before.

I stood and carefully walked over to the painting. I'd not seen it before, but there were multiple finger-sized indentations in the canvas. Using a claw, I pressed one and heard a metallic _clink _noise. I stepped back.

"No way," I breathed.

I stepped forward again, trying multiple combinations and assuming that there was another safe hiding behind the painting. Instead, after finding the right sequence, I dropped into my defensive crouch as the floor sank beneath me. It had the same humming mechanical noise I'd heard from the basement when I'd been working on the servers, right beneath Hawkmoth's nose.

Another connection made.

The lift stopped and I was in a large empty space, dimly lit. There was a massive stained glass window at the far end, backlit softly; at that same end, something was chirping. I stepped forward, and unseen sensors triggered lights, illuminating some sort of cathedral-esque space; I continued forward, baton now in my hand, slowly, more lights coming on as I moved inexorably toward the chirping.

I reached the end, and soft spots kicked in, focused on an angled fairytale-esque glass casket. Fearing the answer, but knowing I had to have it, I stepped closer and looked upon a face very similar to my own, framed by hair the color of sunshine.

Despite my cat-like reflexes, I stumbled backward in shock, and fell on my tail.

"Mom…?"

* * *

_Author's __Note: Thanks for following along! I'm currently working on the final entry in this series, which should appear later this fall. -ep_


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